LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



mpr(£jlknmyiti\i^n 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



M^. 



Christopher-Columbus 

By FRANC B. WILKIE 




CHICAGO 

CHARLES H. SERGEI & COMPANY 
iSO Dearborn Street 



rppl't; rnliimViiQii T iK.-r.,„ 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 



A LIFE OF 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 



By FRANC B. WILKIE 



. 7 

6 i VC X 



CHICAGO 
CHARLES H. SERGEL & COMPANY 



Copyright, 1892, by 
Charles H. Sergel & CoMPAHy 



CONTENTS 



I. — Curious — Strange — Contradictory. . . 7 

II.— Geographical Knowledge in the Fifteenth Cen- 
tury. . . . . .10 

III. — The Birthplaces of the Discoverer. . 14 

IV. — Early Life of Columbus. , , 18 

V. — The Reasons which Prompted Columbus. . 24 

VI. — The Real Columbus Makes his Appearance. 29 

VII. — Columbus Wanders into Spain. . 35 

VIII. — First Efforts of Columbus in Spain. . 40 

IX. — Columbus again Recalled to Court — Queen 

Isabella. .... 47 

^ X.: — Preparations for Departure. - . 57 

XI.— Into the "Sea of Darkness." . . 64 

XII.— The New World. . . . .71 

XIII. — Columbus Reaches Cuba. . . 77 

XIV. — Homeward Bound. . . . .90 

XV.— Visits Portugal— Then Home. . . 97 

XVI. — The Reception at Palos. . . . 102 

XVII. — Preparations for a Second Voyage to the New 

World. .... log 

XVIII. — Guadaloupe and the Caribs. . • 115 

XIX. — Further Facts in Regard to La Navidad. 125 

XX. — The Building of a New City — Maladies. 132 

XXI. — The Fame of Columbus on the Wane. . 140 

(V) 



% 
vi CONTENTS 

XXII. — Troubles with the Natives — Ojeda and Cao- 

nabo. ..... 147 

XXIII. — Last Days of Columbus in the New World — 

Returns to Spain. . . - 153 

XXIV. — Closing Days of Columbus — Death of Isabella. 160 
XXV. — Columbus Sees Ferdinand — Treated with 

Cold Contempt. .... 167 

XXVI.— Death of the Explorer. . . .173 

XXVII. — Some Estimates of the Character of Columbus. 179 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 



CHARTER I 

CURIOUS, STRANGE, AND CONTRADICTORY 

Christopher Columbus is a figure in history 
which presents all the variations, the shiftings, 
the many-colored lights of a kaleidescope. 
He has no fixed name in the language of the 
nation. He is Columbus, Columbo, Colon, 
Colonus; he is Christoval Colon, and Christo- 
pher Columbus. 

He is claimed by the residents of several 
places as having been born in their respective 
localities ; he was descended from noble fami- 
lies, and his father was a humble wool-comber. 
He was educated at a university, he assisted 
his father in his lowly occupation. He was a 
student, a wool-comber, and a sailor at the 
immature age of fourteen years. He was 
familiar with geography, and yet,, as the facts 
subsequently established, he scarcely knew its 
simplest rudiments. These are only a few of 
the contrarieties in his life as recorded in his- 
tory. 



8 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

He discovered America, and yet he did noth- 
ing of the kind. This Northern half of the 
American Continent is about to celebrate the 
four hundredth anniversary of a discovery which 
he never made. The enormous region known 
as North America, he did not discover, he 
never even dreamed of its existence. 

He did not undertake his voyage influenced 
by the slightest idea that a new world was to 
be found ; it was a different approach to an old 
world, India, that he sought, and he died in 
the belief that it was the coasts of India that 
he had encountered ; hence the name "West 
Indies" given to the islands that confronted 
him as he sailed westward. 

He was a tramp, a pauper, a beggar, a 
viceroy with unlimited wealth, a satrap with 
power to bind and loose, and a mendicant 
spurned from the gates of the rich and noble. 
He was a ragged, bare-footed vagrant, and the 
welcome guest in the palaces of royalty, and 
the bosom friend of kings and queens. He 
was despised, and inundated with adulation. 
His fame Was wreathed with golden decora- 
tions intended to do him honor, and with rusty 
chains of iron calculated to inflict on him 
humiliation and disgrace. He dined from ves- 
sels of precious metal, and munched crusts in 



^ CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 9 

squalor in the slums and by the lonely road- 
side of the country across which he journeyed, 
weary and footsore. 

He died, this great man, and to-day, no one 
knows with any certainty where his ashes are 
interred. Several cities claim the honor ; it is 
only known that he died in one continent, that 
his remains were shipped to another, that he 
was buried in a certain place ; that long after 
the relics were removed, as claimed by some, 
and that it was the grave of some other person 
which gave up its contents, as is asserted by 
others. 

Such are some of the salient things connected 
with the birth, life, death and sepulture of a 
character whose anniversary the civilized 
nations are about to celebrate v/ith a splendor, 
a magnificence, and grandeur of dimensions 
never before extended to any human being. 

It is with the facts, so far as they may be 
attainable, of this marvelous development of 
the fifteenth century, that these pages will deal, 
and the writer hopes that such of the public as 
may accompany him, may find the labor at 
once pleasant and instructive. 



CHAPTER II 

GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE IN THE FIFTEENTH 
CENTURY 

Much was surmised, guessed at, dreamed of, 
and speculated about concerning the shape of 
the earth, the respective extent of its land and 
water. Civilization was limited mainly to the 
region lying along the northern shores of the 
Mediterranean. 

The shape of the earth was a disputed 
question. That it was a globe was believed 
by but a few ; the priesthood, as a rule, averred 
that the theory of the sphericity of the earth 
was an absurdity, for the reason that if it were 
true one half the people would be standing 
with their heads hanging down, which was a 
physical impossibility. The religious elements 
asserted that such a conclusion was contrary 
to the teachings of the Bible, and hence its 
belief was blasphemous and heretical. 

The known area of the earth was limited in 
its dimensions. Europe was fairly mapped 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS ii 

out ; Africa was, in the first half of the century 
known along its western shores for a short dis- 
tance south of the Mediterranean Sea; and it 
was not till the last quarter of the century that 
a Portuguese navigator rounded the Cape of 
Good Hope, and staved the prevalent belief 
that Africa extended to the "jumping off" limits 
of the earth. 

The existence of a portion of Asia was known 
to the Venetians and other Italians who car- 
ried on with India a lucrative trade. The 
distance, however, was very great, being on 
rivers, seas, and by caravans. Could the same 
points in southern Asia be reached by water, 
the cost of the transportation of Indian prod- 
ucts would be immeasurably lessened. The 
general conviction that Africa extends out to 
the end of the world, for centuries forbade an 
attempt to sail around it to reach India. 

The further borders of India were the themes 
of startling legends and fanciful conjectures. 
It was believed to be the El Dorado of the 
earth, in which abounded, beyond exhaustion, 
all the precious metals, stones, pearls, useful 
minerals, spices, perfumes, textile stuffs, the 
plumage of birds, and, in fine, all the natural 
materials which constitute wealth, and which 
are demanded to satisfy the wants of luxury. 



12 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

All these beliefs had been stimulated by 
vague reports emanating from the remoter por- 
tions of India visited by commercial "drum- 
mers" in their search for goods. Marco Polo 
had left statements of what he had seen in 
farther India; of islands abounding in gold, of 
cities marvelous in their great dimensions, the 
beauty of their architecture, and the splendors 
and opulence of the natives. 

In their attempts to reach India the nations 
interested were led by Portugal, whose ambi- 
tion in the direction of discovery on the ocean 
excelled that of all other peoples. During 
the reign of John I. his son, Prince Henry, 
became interested in the scheme of circumnav- 
igating Africa, and gathered about him emi- 
nent men familiar with astronomy and naviga- 
tion, believing that b}^ this course he could 
open an easv route to the sources of the fabled 
wealth of Western India. Irving says : — 

"The effects of these proceedings were soon 
apparent. " All that was known relative to geog- 
raphy and navigation was gathered together 
and reduced to system. A vast improvement 
took place in maps. The compass was also 
brought into more general use, especially 
among the Portuguese, rendering the mariner 
iriore bold and venturous, by enabling him to 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 13 

navigate in the most gloomy day and in the 
darkest night. The Portuguese marine became 
signalized for the hardihood of its enterprises 
and the extent of its discoveries. The region 
of the tropics was penetrated and divested of 
its fancied terrors, and the Azores Islands, 
which lay three hundred leagues distant from 
the continent, were rescued from the oblivious 
empire of the ocean." 

Unfortunately Prince Henry died some 
thirty years before the first voyage of Columbus, 
but his life and actions had stimulated the 
Portuguese ambition for discovery, and that 
people, says a writer, "were the wonder and 
admiration of the Fifteenth Century, and Por- 
tugal, from being one of the least among nations, 
suddenly rose to be one of the most impor- 
tant. * * * The fame of the Portuguese 
discoveries, and of the expeditions continually 
setting out, drew the attention of the world. 
Strangers from all parts, the learned, the curi- 
ous, and the adventurous, resorted to Lisbon 
to inquire into the particulars or participate in 
the advantages of these enterprises." 

Among the other hundreds of thousands 
who were attracted by the splendid achieve- 
ments of Portugal, and who went there, was 
Christopher Columbus. 



CHAPTER III 

THE BIRTHPLACES OF THE DISCOVERER 

It is the general conclusion that Columbus 
was born in Genoa, in about 1445, and that he 
was the son of a humble wool-comber, and 
the eldest of four children, three of whom 
were boys. There has been, however, a wide 
difference of opinion on this point of place of 
birth. 

As in the case of Homer, m.any cities claimed 
Columbus dead in which, when living, he had 
received no recognition. The States of Placen- 
tia, and those of Piedmont both claimed to be 
entitled to tfee-honor of having given birth to 
the famous navigator, although the first-named 
provinces failed to present their evidence till 
nearly two hundred years after Columbus had 
discovered the West India Islands. 

An examination of the evidence presented by 

Placentia, made by a committee of experts 

from the Genoese Academy of Sciences, as late 

as 1812, elicited the fact that the claim was to 
14 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 15 

the effect that Columbus was born in a small 
place known as Pradello. It was established 
that the great grandfather of Columbus was the 
owner of some property in that place, and that 
the rent was paid to members of the Colum- 
bus family living in Genoa. Nothing, however, 
was discovered which connected the navigator 
with Pradello further than this remote owner- 
ship of some property. 

Piedmont made a much more plausible show- 
ing than Placentia. It was proved that a 
Columbus was living in Montferrat, at the 
date of the birth of Christopher, and who was 
asserted to be the son of Dominico Columbo, 
the resident of Montferrat. It was proved 
in a suit instituted by a descendant of this 
Dominico Columbo, who sought to secure the 
estates of Christopher Columbus, when his 
line became extinct, that there were two men 
named Dominico Columbo, and that the ' one 
at Montferrat was not the father of the navi- 
gator. 

It was finally decided that he was born in 
Genoa, but whether in the city itself, or in 
some other part of the Genoese territory has 
never been determined. A half a dozen towns 
whose names are known have presented claims, 
in Genoese territory, and a greater number of 



1 6 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

others whose names are unknown. Among 
the former are Savona, Cogoleto, Oneglia, Bog- 
giasco, and Finale. From time to time each 
of these towns has held first place in the con- 
test for the birthplace of Columbus. Savona, 
although not in the field as a contestant, till 
a late day, 1826, made a magnificent burst of 
speed, and, in the opinion of its friends, won the 
prize. 

Bellero an advocate of Savona, in a letter, 
published in May 1826, says: — 

"It is an admitted fact that Dominico Colum- 
bo was, for many years a resident and citizen 
of Savona in which place one Christopher 
Columbus is shown to have signed a document 
in 1472. 

"A public square in the city bore the name of 
Platea Columbi, toward the end of the sixteenth 
century, and it was shown that the Ligurian 
government gave the name of Jurisdizione di 
Columbi to that district of the republic, under 
the belief that the great navigator was a native 
of Savona; and that Columbus gave the name 
of Savona to a little island, adjacent to His- 
paniola, among his earliest discoveries." 

The letter of Signor Belloro quotes a large 
number of authorities to establish the claims 
of Savona \ but despite this, posterity, in the 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 17 

case of the majority, has agreed to unite on 
the city of Genoa as the birthplace of Colum- 
bus. The locality of his birthplace plays no 
important part whatever in the results of his 
living. It is not the place where he was born, 
or in which he died, or was finally buried 
which cuts any figure in his services. He 
might have leaped out of the darkness of the 
past, at the moment he appeared at Lisbon, 
and the world would have missed nothing of 
value if the obscurity of his origin had never 
been penetrated. 

It is said by Prescott in "Ferdinand and 
Isabella" :— 

"The discrepancies among the earliest 

authorities are such as to render hopeless any 

attempt to settle with precision the chronology 

of Columbus* movements previous to his first 

voyage." It was in 1470 that Columbus went 

to Portugal where he remained fourteen years. 
2 



CHAPTER IV 

EARLY LIFE OF COLUMBUS 

Very little is positively known of the early 
life of Columbus, except two or three points 
upon which there is a certain amount of agree- 
ment between the various writers. There is 
no doubt that his parents were very poor, and 
that his education was limited mainly to such 
studies as would fit him for the life of a sailor. 

It is asserted by some writers that he had 
some knowledge of Latin, drawing, geometry, 
geography, astronomy, and navigation. He 
had a few months at the University of Pavia; 
and at the age of fourteen he went to sea. It 
is stated by some authorities that his career 
as a sailor was more or less connected with 
transactions of a piratical character. It is also 
said that during periods when he was ashore, 
between his various voyages, he was engaged 
as a book seller and a map pedler, in Genoa. 

Fancy the great genius that discovered Amer- 
ica acting as a book agent! 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 19 

When Columbus was twenty-four years of 
age, according to some authorities, Alphonso 
of Aragon, King of Naples, threatened an inva- 
sion of Genoa. An appeal was made to Charles, 
King of France, Italy refusing to assist the 
menaced city. The king sent John, of Anjou, 
who took command of the town and placed the 
city in a condition of defense. 

Alphonso died before the preparations for 
the attack had been completed, and the assault 
on Genoa was abandoned. Immediately after- 
ward, John, of Anjou, undertook to attack Na- 
ples for the recovery of the crown. The peo- 
ple of Genoa sided with him, furnishing him 
with ships and money. It is stated that Colum- 
bus served in this army and played a very 
gallant part. 

While in Portugal Columbus joined the expe- 
dition of the Portuguese ships which were mak- 
ing explorations along the eastern African coast. 
They landed at Porto Santo, of the Madeiras 
which was governed by Perestrello, who had 
been a captain in the Portuguese navy and 
who had died leaving a daughter to whom 
Columbus was married. He lived for some 
time at the home of the widow, and availed 
himself of the papers and charts which had 
been gathered by the late governor. His son 
Diego was born on this island in 1474. 



20 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

It was about this time that he had some cor- 
respondence with an Italian, Toscanelli, an 
eminent scientific student, in regard to the 
possibilities of finding land to the westward. 
With reference to this, Justin Winsor says : 

"Meanwhile gathering what hope he could 
by reading the ancients, by conferring with 
wise men, and by questioning mariners return- 
ing from voyages which had borne them more 
or less westerly on the great ocean, Columbus 
suffered the thought to germinate in his mind 
as it would for several years. Even on the 
voyages that he made hither and thither for 
gain, once far north to Iceland, even, or per- 
haps only to the Faroe Islands, as is inferred, 
and in active participation in various maraud- 
ing and warlike expeditions, like the attack 
on the Venetian galleys near Cape St. Vincent, 
in 1485, he constantly came in contact with 
those who could give him hints affecting his 
theory. Through all these years, however, we 
know not certainly what were the vicissitudes 
that fell to his lot." 

At this period, about 1470, the cause that 
landed Columbus in Portugal is ascribed by 
some writers to an event that is undoubtedly 
apocryphal. It is said that there was a Columbo 
the Younger, a Genoese corsair, in whose expe- 



CHRISTOPHRR COLUMBUS 21 

ditions Columbus sometimes shared. On the 
occasion that he found himself in Portugal, he 
was acting as captain of one of the ships of 
the squadron of Columbo the Younger. 

The latter attacked four Venetian galleys, 
laden with rich stuffs, which were on their 
return voyage. The attack was made off the 
coast of Portugal not far from Lisbon. A 
battle which lasted all day, ensued, and was 
fought with desperation, and bloody results. 

The accounts of the contest say that the 
ship commanded by Columbus was engaged 
with one of the largest of the Venetian galleys 
and that they fastened together with grappling 
irons, and both were enveloped in flames. 
The crews jumped into the sea. Columbus, 
supported by an oar, swam to the shore a dis- 
tance of two leagues, and soon after made his 
way to Lisbon. 

This adventure is narrated by his son Fer- 
nando, and for a long time, up to within the 
last century, was accepted as a reliable narra- 
tion. Later authorities, however, deny its 
authenticity and assert that while it may be 
that Columbus took part in the naval battle, 
he was living in Lisbon, where he had been 
for some time. 

Portugal, at this period, led all the other 



22 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

nations of Europe in maritime explorations, and 
on this account, adventurers from all quarters 
flocked to the Portuguese capital. It is prob- 
able that the reputation of the ambition and 
activity of the Portuguese for exploration 
attracted the attention of Columbus, and 
brought him to the great center of maritime 
operations. 

He had accepted the theory of the globular 
form of the earth, and believed that by sailing 
westward on the Atlantic, he would find not 
a new world, but the opposite shores of India. 
He had read the marvelous accounts of Man- 
deville and Marco Polo, and fully believed the 
statements in regard to Cathay, and the Island 
of Cipango, whose richness excelled descrip- 
tion, and the enormous wealth of the Indies. 

It was to reach this island, to discover a 
short route to the thither shore of India that 
became the dominant idea of Columbus. The 
conception of a continent, one unknown, 
between Europe and India, never once entered 
his mind. 

Whether or not Columbus presented his 
plans, for discovering a shorter route, first 
to the king of Portugal, or to Genoa and 
Venice, is not certainly known. It may be 
that he approached his native city immediately 



CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 23 

after leaving Portugal, which would permit 
the inference that he had failed to make an 
impression on the Portuguese king. In any 
case, neither the Genoese nor the Venetians 
would listen to his schemes. 



CHAPTER V 

THE REASONS WHICH PROMPTED COLUMBUS 

The son of Columbus furnishes the data, or 
supposed data, on which the navigator founded 
his plan of discovery. 

There were three principal considerations. 
The first was the conviction that the earth 
was a globe which might be traveled around 
without insuperable difficulty. The second 
was the opinion of eminent writers that the 
ocean west of Europe must be limited in its 
extent. 

Under the third head are grouped evidences 
of a countr}^ in the west from which have 
drifted many objects, impelled by the winds. 
Fernando relates that he found among his 
father's notes various incidents of this kind. 
For instance, a Portuguese pilot, after sailing 
four hundred and fifty leagues to the west, 
found, in the water, a piece of carved wood 
which, carried by a west wind, must have 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 25 

come from some land in that direction. Other 
notes record that the King of Portugal had 
learned of reeds of large dimensions which 
had floated from the west, and which Columbus 
believed to be of the kind spoken of by an 
ancient writer as growing in India. 

It is probable that among other influences, 
the letter of Dr. Paul Toscanelli, a Florentine, 
was not the least influential in confirming his 
belief that India would be reached by sailing 
to the west. It was in 1474, that this famous 
letter was penned: and in it the learned astron- 
omer asserted his belief that not more than 
fifty-two degrees of longitude separated Asia 
from western Europe, which was far less than 
the estimate made by Columbus. 

This letter was not written to Columbus, but 
to a dignitary named Martinez, in Lisbon, and 
was accompanied by a map which, says Winsor, 
"was professedly based on information derived 
from the book of Marco Polo. " At the request 
of Columbus, Toscanelli sent a copy of the 
letter accompanied by a map, giving his view 
of the location of India west from Europe. 

These are some of the legitimate influences 
that operated to turn the attention of the 
Genoese sailor to the possibilities of reaching 
Asia by sailing west on the Atlantic. There 



26 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

are other reasons assigned for his apparent 
certainty as to what was to be found in such a 
vo37age. It is claimed b}^ some authorities that 
he had an actual knowledge of a land in the 
west which he obtained from the information 
of one who had seen it. 

A narration prevailed in the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries to the effect that a 
Spanish pilot on a vo^^age from Madeira, had 
been driven west till he had encountered land, 
which it is claimed was Hispaniola, which 
Columbus afterward discovered. On his return 
he was shipwrecked, and found a home with 
Columbus. It is said that he remained in this 
shelter till he died, leaving his notes and 
secret with his host. This account has been 
scouted by some, and believed by others. 

A Spanish author, La Vega, claims to haA^e 
received the story from his father who had 
visited the Spanish Court during the reign of 
Ferdinand and Isabella. The death of the 
Spanish pilot occurred in 1484, in time to have 
permitted Columbus to use the information 
providing there were any of the kind. 

Columbus made a voyage to Iceland in 1477, 
and it is thought by some that he may have 
seen the Sagas of the voyages of Northmen to 
the American coast. There are many claim- 



CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 27 

ants to having visited various portions of the 
western continent. One was Cortereal a Por- 
tuguese who, it is affirmed, landed at the banks 
of Newfoundland, in 1463-1464. John Szkolny, 
a Polish navigator in the service of Denmark 
is alleged to have landed at Labrador, in 1476; 
Cousin, a Frenchman is accredited with having, 
while on his way to Africa, in 1488-1489, been 
driven by a storm on the coast of South Amer- 
ica. 

The application of the astrolabe to navi- 
gation — the discovery of two Portuguese, Jew- 
ish physicians — came opportunely to aid 
Columbus. Hitherto ships had always sailed 
within sight of the land. The astrolabe per- 
mitted the sailor to ascertain the height of the 
sun above the horizon and thus learn his dis- 
tance from the equator. It has been modified 
until it is now the modern quadrant. The dis- 
covery gave a vast impetus to navigation as 
it, in connection with the compass, enabled 
ships to cut loose from the slavery of sailing 
by points of land, and to venture out into 
unknown waters. 

It is worthy of note that but little furnished 
by the historians and biographers of Columbus 
anterior to his first voyage in search of India 
are in agreement as to many dates, the nature 



28 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

of actions, or even, in many instances, to the 
actors themselves. For instance, it is denied 
by later authorities that Columbus ever applied 
to the Genoese to undertake to supply him 
with means to make his initial voyage of dis- 
covery. Doubt is thrown on the long enter- 
tained belief that the wife of Columbus was 
Philippa, the daughter of Bartholomew Pere- 
strello ; it being claimed that his wife was the 
daughter of one Vasco Gil Moniz, while it 
was the sister of the father, Moniz, who mar- 
ried Perestrello. 

The statement that he attended the Univer- 
sity of Pavia is also discredited. The hitherto 
accepted assertion that Columbus left Portugal 
because the tie which bound him to that country 
was broken by the death of his wife, is pro- 
nounced unfounded. 

In truth this obscurity, this uncertainty 
accompanies the great navigator from his cradle 
to his grave. Probably less is known with 
exactness, and more is written of an uncertain 
character about Columbus than of any other 
great figure within historic times. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE REAL COLUMBUS MAKES HIS APPEARANCE 

It is now 1484, and Columbus, for the first 
time emerges from his obscurity, and appears 
as a distinct figure before the world. At this 
period, perhaps the readers would be glad to 
have a portrait of the great navigator as drawn 
by his son and other writers of that time. 

He was tall, well-formed, muscular, and of 
a dignified bearing. His face was long ; his 
complexion fair and freckled and inclined to 
ruddy ; his nose aquiline his cheeks were high, 
his eyes light gray ; his whole countenance had 
an air of authority. His hair when he was 
younger was of a light color ; but care and 
trouble, according to Las Casas, soon turned 
it gray, and at thirty it was quite white. He 
was moderate and simple in diet and apparel, 
eloquent in discourse, engaging and affable 
with strangers, and his amiableness and suavity 
in domestic life strongly attached his house- 
hold to his person. 

29 



30 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

"His temper was naturally irritable ; but he 
subdued it by the magnanimity of his spirit, 
comporting himself with a courteous and gen- 
tle gravity, and never indulging in any intem- 
perance of language. Throughout his life he 
was noted for the strict attention to the ofBces 
of religion, observing rigorously the fast and 
ceremonies of the church ; nor did his piety 
consist in mere forms, but partook of that lofty 
and solemn enthusiasm with which his whole 
character was strongly tinctured. 

It was this year, 1484, that he was in Lis- 
bon, and presuming on the ambition and activ- 
ity displayed by the Portuguese in ocean 
exploration he ventured to lay his plans before 
King John II., with regard to securing a pas- 
sage by sea to India. Obtaining an audience 
with his majesty, he proposed that in case the 
king would furnish him with ships and men to 
secure a shorter route than that along the 
coast of Africa by striking directly west across 
the Atlantic. 

The king, according to Fernando, listened 
with great attention, but was discouraged from 
encountering more expenses than had already 
been incurred in exploring the route by the 
African coast. Columbus, however, supported 
his case so well that the king was finally 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 31 

induced to give his consent. Columbus being 
possessed by very high ideas exacted so much 
in the way of titles and other compensations 
that the king in reality was not disposed to 
concede his demands. 

Barros, the historian, gives a different 
account of the first interview. He attributes 
the seeming acquiescence of the king merely 
to the importunities of Columbus. He con- 
sidered him "a vain-glorious man, fond of dis- 
playing his abilities, and given to fantastic 
fancies. " 

John n. referred the matter to a junta which 
had charge of all affairs relating to maratime 
matters. This junta was composed of two cos- 
mographers, Roderigo and Joseph, and the 
king's confessor, Diego Ortiz de Cazadilla, 
bishop of Ceuta. This scientific body treated 
the project as extravagant and visionary. 

It was suggested to the king by the bishop, 
that Columbus might be asked for time to 
examine the matter, while a vessel might be 
quietly dispatched in the direction he pointed 
out and learn whether there was any foundation 
for his theory. Columbus was asked to give 
the council a plan of the voyage with all the 
charts and documents in his possession. Then 
a caravel was dispatched on the pretense of 



32 CHRIS TOPHER COL UMB US 

bearing provisions, but with secret instruc- 
tions to follow the designated route. 

The caravel sailed westward for several days 
and seeing nothing but an immeasurable ocean, 
and the weather becoming stormy, put back, 
ridiculing the project as irrational. 

This account is given in the history of 
Herrera and is in some respects disputed. 

Columbus learned of this rascally attempt, 
and thereupon indignantly declined all offers 
of King John to renew the negotiations, and, 
taking his boy Diego, left Portugal and, 
according to Winsor, disappeared for nearly 
a year. Munoz claims for this period that he 
went to Italy. Sharon Turner has conjectured 
that he went to England ; but there seems to 
be no ground to believe that he had any rela- 
tions with the English Court except by deputy, 
for his brother Bartholomew was dispatched 
to lay his scheme before Henry VII. Whatever 
may have been the result of this application, 
no answer seems to have reached Columbus 
until he was committed to the service of 
Spain. 

A foot-note to this statement says that "there 
is great uncertainty about this English ven- 
ture. Benzoni says Columbus' ideas were 
ridiculed; Bacon (Life of Henry VII.) says 



' CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 33 

that the acceptance of them was delayed by 
accident ; Purchas says that they were accepted 
too late. F. Cradock regrets the loss of honor 
which Henry VII. incurred in not listening to 
the project. There is much confusion of 
statement in the early writers. " 

The initial effort of Columbus is thus seen to 
be a humiliating failure; one which was all the 
more galling to a high-spirited, sensitive man 
in that it was accompanied by gross and 
scandalous treachery on the part of King John, 
and apparent indifference on the part of Henry 
of England. In the cases of both these mon- 
archs and their subjects, there came a time 
when there were ample grounds for chagrin 
and regret over their ill-advised action. 

It is true that many years later, they were 
both vastly benefitted by the discoveries of 
Columbus, but neither secured the incompara- 
ble honor of being connected with the initial 
effort which led to the magnificent finding of 
a new world. Both of these powers reaped, 
in time, where Columbus had sown. Unwit- 
tingly they allowed the chestnuts to be pulled 
from the fire by another hand, and yet secured 
a large share of the kernel. 

The moral of this transaction does not prove 
that meanness, as a rule, pays; but it affords 



34 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

a striking instance in which such qualities do 
not result in the prompt punishment of their 
possessors. 

One cannot resist speculation as to what 
would have occurred had Henry VII. listened 
favorably to the application of Columbus. In 
such a case, the world would probably have 
been spared the indescribable bigotry, the 
immeasurable horrors, the wholesale butchery, 
the robberies, and all the other wicked atroc- 
ities, the cruelties, the devouring greed attend- 
ing the Spanish discovery. 



CHAPTER VII 

COLUMBUS WANDERS INTO SPAIN 

It was one or two years after leaving Portu- 
gal that Columbus appeared in Spain. He 
arrived there in 1485, according to one author- 
ity, and a year later according to another. 

It was not an opportune period for the pros- 
ecution of his mission. Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella were engaged in an attempt to conquer 
the Moorish Province of Granada, and were 
meeting with a most determined resistance. It 
was, however, at the period when Aragon and 
Castile, the kingdoms respectively of Ferdinand 
and Isabella, had been united by the marriage 
of this couple, with the result that Spain was 
at the very height of its power. Everything 
was favorable to Columbus : The wealth, and 
strength of the kingdoms, the intelligence of 
the reigning monarchs ; but a worse time to 
present his novel plan could not have possibly 

fallen to his lot. 

35 



36 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

According to Voltaire, "Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella lived together not like man and wife, but 
like two monarchs strictly allied. They had 
separate claims to sovereignt}^ in virtue of 
their respective kingdoms \ they had separate 
councils, and were often distant from each 
other in different parts of their empire, each 
exercising the royal authority." 

Ferdinand is described by contemporary 
writers of middle height well-proportioned, 
with a commanding carriage. He was slightly 
bald on the forehead ; his hair and beard were 
a bright brown ; his complexion dark, tanned 
by exposure in the field ; his mouth well-formed 
and gracious in its expression ; his teeth small, 
white, and uneven ; his voice sharp ; his speech 
rapid and fluent. 

He had excellent judgment, was a fine 
soldier, a capable statesman, and a fierce, intol- 
erant bigot, largely controlled by the priests. 
Voltaire says of him : "He was called the 
wise and prudent in Spain ; in Italy the pious ; 
and in England and France, the ambitious and 
perfidious." 

Irving assiduously collected the contempo- 
rary utterances of the Spanish historians with 
reference to Isabella with highly laudatory 
results. According to the views of the gallant 



CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 37 

Spanish writers she is one of the purest and 
most beautiful characters in history, and as 
charming in body as in soul. She was of 
medium size, graceful in figure and deport- 
ment, and possessed of a mingled gravity and 
sweetness of demeanor. Her complexion was 
fair; her hair auburn inclined to red — the fa- 
vorite tint four centuries later — her eyes were a 
clear blue with a benign expression, and there 
was a singular modesty in her countenance, 
gracing, as it did, a wonderful firmness of 
purpose, and earnestness of spirit. " 

In all essential respects she was a model save 
that, like her husband, she was a bigot, and 
under the thumb of the priests. She was hand 
in hand with the infernal Torquemada by 
whose side Caligula, and other human mon- 
sters were pure, white-robed angels. Morally 
this beautiful woman was a participating acces- 
sor}' in the most atrocious series of crimes 
known in history. 

Prescott denounces this infamous institu- 
tion, the Spanish Inquisition, in language 
unstinted in its vigor. 

"It was not enough now," he says, "as for- 
merly, to conform passively to the doctrines of 
the church, but it was enjoined to make war 
on all who refused them. >k * * 'pj^g most 



38 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

frightful maxims were deliberately engrafted into 
the code of morals. There was some doubt 
whether a man might Slay his own father, if 
a heretic or an infidel, but none whatever as 
to his right, in that event to take away the 
life of his son or brother. Anyone, it was said, 
might conscientiously kill an apostate when- 
ever he could meet him. These maxims were 
not a dead, letter, but of most active opera- 
tion, as the sad records of the dread tribunal 
too well prove." 

Such was the character of an institution 
which was introduced into Spain by Isabella, 
who, in all other respects was a paragon of the 
virtues; whose other phases of action were 
characterized by tenderness and mercy which 
were boundless in their extent and application. 

Ferdinand was equally a partner in this 
infamous crime. He was the more culpable, if 
possible, of the two, for the reason that he 
could, if he would, have prevented the blood 
from reddening the soil of Spain. 

It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that the 
blood spilled and tbe cruelties perpetrated by 
the agency of Torquemada, together with the 
massacre, robbery, spoliation, and other crying 
outrages inflicted by the Spaniards in the early 
invasion of this continent, fairly outweighs in 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 39 

the scale of justice the benefits the world has 
received from the actions of Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella. It is due to the same illustrious couple, 
under pressure from Torquemada, that several 
hundred thousand Jews were driven out of Spain 
under circumstances so utteriy atrocious and 
abhorrent that humanity, after an interval of 
four hundred years, still sheds its tears over 
the woeful recollection. 



CHAPTER VIII 

FIRST EFFORTS OF COLUMBUS IN SPAIN 

There are several accounts concerning the 
arrival of Columbus in Spain, and the persons 
with whom he was first put into communica- 
tion. One account has it that he sought at first 
to make influence among wealthy Spanish noble- 
men. Among these were the dukes of Medina 
Sidonia and Medina Celi, who were enormously 
wealthy, with shipping and all other appliances 
appertaining to princes. 

This account goes en to state that Columbus 
saw frequently the Duke of Medina Sidonia, 
who was very much impressed by the magnifi- 
cence of the statements of Columbus, but in 
the end rejected the projects of Columbus as 
being the extravagant vision of a dreamer ; the 
Duke of Medina Celi heard Columbus with 
favor at the beginning. He was so struck 
with the idea advanced by the navigator that 
he offered him the use of three or four caravels 

which were all ready for sea in his harbor at 
40 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 41 

Port St. Mary, when it suddenly occurred to 
him that the enterprise if successful; would 
include discoveries too important to be handled 
by anybody less than a monarch. He finally 
abandoned the idea, however. 

Columbus then determined to go to France, 
which being learned by the duke, Vv'ho was 
unwilling that Spain should lose an opportu- 
nity so promising, he wrote to Queen Isabella, 
recommending it to her attention. She replied, 
asking that Columbus might be sent to her. 
The Spanish Court was then at Cordova, to 
which Columbus went with a letter to the 
queen from the duke, and asking in case the 
enterprise should be undertaken he should 
have an interest in it, and permission to fit 
out the armament from his port as a compen- 
sation for having given up the expedition in 
favor of the crown. This is one account. 

Another account says that Columbus was 
unfortunate in his first channel of communica- 
tion with the Court. He was furnished by 
Fray Juan Perez de Marchini in charge of the 
Convent of La Ravida in Andelusia, who has 
taken a deep interest in the plans of the navi- 
gator, with an introduction to Fernando de 
Talavera, prior of Prado, and the confessor of 
the queen, a person who stood very high in 



42 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

the royal estimate, and had been raised to the 
archiepiscopal see of Granada. He was a 
man of great learning, and, it was said by 
Prescott : "his learning was that of a cloister, 
deeply tinctured with pedantry and supersti- 
tion, and debased by such servile deference 
even to the errors of antiquity as at once led 
him to discountenance everything like inno- 
vation or enterprise." 

Talavera was not in the least able to com- 
prehend the schemes of Columbus, and looked 
upon him as a person with an unsettled mind, 
and not altogether orthodox. The king and 
queen ordered Talavera to select a council of 
the most eminent scholars of the kingdom, 
chiefly churchmen. The theories of Colum- 
bus were discussed by the conclave with leth- 
argic interest, and so numerous were the prej- 
udices, and so great the skepticism, that tney 
were several years in coming to a decision. 

During this period of waiting, Columbus 
was in attendance at the Court of Ferdinand 
and Isabella, fighting occasionally against the 
Moors, and being treated by the sovereigns 
with great attention. He was supported by 
money furnished by the royal order, for his 
private expenses, and according to Herrera, 
the Spanish historian, the municipalities of 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 43 

Andelusia were instructed to supply him gra- 
tuitously with lodging and other personal 
accommodation. 

At "length Columbus, worn out by the long 
delay, asked the Court for a definite answer 
to his propositions, when he was informed 
that the Council of Salamanca pronounced his 
scheme to be "vain, impracticable, and resting 
on grounds too weak to merit the support of 
the government. " There were a few in the 
council who differed from this report, who 
believed in his scheme, and gave him their 
friendship. One of these was the Cardinal 
Mendoza, and another, Deza, archbishop of 
Seville, who was afterward the successor to 
Torquemada, the chief of the infernal Spanish 
Inquisition. 

The influence of these two men with the 
sovereigns was so great that they gave an 
assurance to Columbus that, "although they 
were too much occupied at present to embark 
in his undertaking, yet at the conclusion of 
the war they would find both time and inclina- 
tion to treat with him." 

Columbus received this communication as a 
refusal, and at once left the Court with the 
intention of seeking some other patron to his 
undertaking. Without wasting further time 



44 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

he started to France, in 1491, to lay his pro- 
posal before the king who had written him a 
letter of encouragement. 

The third account is the well-known one and 
the most generally accepted which relates to 
his presentation of himself at the Convent of 
Santa Maria de la Ravida, asking for bread 
for himself and his boy. The convent was 
near Palos and was in charge of Father Supe- 
rior Juan Perez de Marchina. The stranger 
interested the prior and it was by his advice 
that Columbus was sent to Cordova with such 
claims to recognition as the prior of Ravida 
could give him. 

It was in 1485 or i486 that Columbus laid 
his proposal before Ferdinand and Isabella. 
Among those attached to the Court was Alex- 
ander Geraldinus, a traveler, a man of letters, 
and a mathematician, who assisted Columbus in 
pressing his views upon their majesties. It 
was through his influence that the ear of Pedro 
Gonzales de Mendoza was obtained. The king 
under the archbishop's advice, called the 
council of learned men at Salamanca, spoken 
of in the second theory. 

"Here," says a writer, "he was met by all 
that prejudice, contempt, and ignorance (as 
now understood, but wisdom then), could bring 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 45 

to bear in the shape of scriptural contradic- 
tions of his views, and the pseudo-scientific 
distrust of what were thought mere visionary 
aims. He told them that he should find Asia 
that way, and that if he did not there must be 
other land westerly, quite as desirable to dis- 
cover. No conclusion had been reached when, 
in the spring of 1487, the Court departed from 
Cordova, and Columbus found himself left 
behind without encouragement, save in the sup- 
port of a few whom he had convinced." 

For five long years Columbus danced attend- 
ance on their majesties, fought with them 
against the Moors to gain their good will, 
and finally, in 1491, he left the monarchs and 
returned to Ravida. Once more he convinced 
the prior, who again applied to the queen with 
the result that she recalled him. He was very 
cordially received, and for the first time hope 
of success possessed his soul. 

However, his satisfaction was short-lived. 
When the discussion of terms, of rewards, of 
honors occurred, Columbus developed what 
seemed to their majesties to be a greed of most 
extraordinary dimensions. When he demanded 
that he should be made viceroy, and that he 
should receive one-tenth of the income, their 
majesties refused to listen any further, and the 



46 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

conference was summarily brought to a ter- 
mination. 

Columbus mounted his mule and once more 
started for France. 



CHAPTER IX 

COLUMBUS AGAIN RECALLED TO COURT — QUEEN 
ISABELLA 

Two wise men, Santangel of Aragon, and 
Quintanilla of Castile respectively finance min- 
isters of the two kingdoms in the order named, 
saw, as they thought, something of value in 
the projects of Columbus. They appealed to 
Isabella to reconsider her determination, and 
to give instructions to recall the navigator. 
Once more Columbus stood in the presence of 
her majesty. 

It seems somewhat inconsistent with the 
reputed firmness, excellent judgment, and 
practical sense of Ferdinand and Isabella that 
they should have been five years in making up 
their minds, and that, throughout all that 
period, they should have exhibited so constant 
vacillation. 

It was April 17th, 1492, when Columbus 
again faced the imperial couple, and received 
a written agreement to the effect that he should 



48 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

have the positions of high-admiral, and viceroy 
in new territories to be discovered, and one 
eighth of the profits in consideration that he 
should bear one-eighth of the expenses of the 
expedition. 

It is at this interview where the first allusion 
is made to the eagerness of Isabella to further 
the enterprise by the proffer of her jewels. 

"I will," she said, "assume the undertaking 
for my own crown of Castile, and am read}^ to 
pawn my jewels to defray the expenses, if the 
funds in the treasury shall be found to be inad- 
equate." 

Under the more powerful lens of modern 
investigation, much of the past which is 
obscure, distorted, exaggerated, has been 
clearly revealed in its true character. The 
results of these minute and careful inspections 
are often instructive, iconoclastic ; they resolve 
legends, romances, traditions, alleged history 
and prove their real character. 

William Tell, under this modern microscope, 
becomes a myth ; men and events accepted 
verities for generations, are materially modi- 
fied and sometimes disappear. The character 
and dimensions of the giants of antiquity are 
reconstructed, as are the frames of extinct ani- 
mals by a bone in the possession of the com- 
parative anatomist. 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 49 

In this inspection of the past few notabilities 
have escaped examination, and among those 
who have been most thoroughly analyzed is 
Queen Isabella. The result leaves us a gra- 
cious queen, a woman conspicuous for her 
beauty and mental charms; a grand figure in 
the pantheon of the fifteenth century, with 
the sagacity, the foresight, the skill of a states- 
man ; the instincts of a chivalrous knight ; in 
her skirts a feminine counterpart of the Cid 
in his armor. All these qualities remain 
under the inspection of the critical lenses, and 
much more. We still see the young girl dar- 
ing death to keep her plighted faith with her 
lover; there remains the loving wife who never 
forgot her obligation to her husband ; who was 
a tender mother, a woman of profound piety, 
and whose moral life was without a flaw. 

It is the same Isabella and yet not the same 
Isabella, which is reconstructed by the scien- 
tific anatomist. The main points which the 
world has so long recognized are there to a 
considerable extent, but some of the accepted 
ones are absent. The modern presentation of 
this great woman does not in the least detract 
from her resplendent genius, and her superi- 
ority to all the other great women of the cen- 
tury in which she lived ; it simply changes her 



so CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

attitude in a very material point, toward the 
discovery of this continent. 

An encyclopedist says of Isabella : — 

"The masculine intellect, the feminine 
charms, and the rare virtues of Isabella have 
been a favorite theme for historians of all sub- 
sequent times, and the affection in which her 
subjects held her person is still cherished 
throughout Spain for her memory. 

"For Ferdinand she always entertained the 
warmest affection, which was not always faith- 
fully returned. A genuine piety colored every 
action of her life. In person she was equally 
beautiful as in character. She had a clear 
complexion, light blue eyes, and auburn hair. 
She had five children. * * * The encour- 
agement of Christopher Columbus is the deed 
by which she is best known to posterity ; the 
squadron with which he discovered America 
was equipped at her expense." 

All this is true save the closing assertion. 
Isabella did encourage Columbus, but she did 
not pay the expenses of the squadron with 
which he discovered this country. 

The beautiful belief that she gave him her 
jewels to raise needed funds to equip the fleet 
of discovery, is, I regret to say, no longer 
regarded by the latest authorities as a fact. It 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 51 

is a pity that the cold iconoclast of the nine- 
teenth century should destroy one of the most 
charming of the delusions of the fifteenth. 

In the "Narrative and Critical History of 
America" by Justin Winsor, the well-known 
librarian of Harvard University, and which 
consists of four thousand pages in eight vol- 
umes, is treated exhaustively every phase of 
this continent from earliest antiquity down to 
the latter portion of the present centurj^. 

The portion of this volume devoted to 
"Columbus and His Discoveries" is based on 
manuscript beginning with documentary proofs 
first collected by a Spanish historian, Herrera, 
in 1 601, and thence through all subsequent 
accumulations furnished by successive Span- 
ish writers. Many new manuscripts were con 
suited — that is, new in the sense of never before 
having been examined or given publicity. 

It is from this source that will be given the 
authorities to prove that Isabella did not 
assist Columbus with either cash or her jewels, 
as is popularl}^ supposed. She gave him 
moral support ; she rewarded him with honors 
after he had found the western islands — the 
Bahamas, the Antilles, and the misnamed 
West Indies, which some years later led to 
the discovery of the mainland by the Cabots 



• 



52 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

and Vespucci within a few weeks of each other. 

In Vol. II. of the "Narrative and Critical 
History of America," the legend in regard to 
the donation of her jewels by the queen to 
Columbus is thus alluded to by Winsor : — 

"The world has long glorified the story in 
the 'Historie of 1571' about the part which the 
crown jewels and the like played in the efforts 
of Isabella to assist Columbus in the furnish- 
ing of Columbus' vessel. Peter Martyr, Ber- 
naldes and others who took occasion to make 
frequent mention, to sound the praises of her 
majesty, say nothing of it ; and as is now con- 
tended, for the good reason that there was no 
truth in the story, the jewels having long before 
been pledged in the prosecution of the war 
with the Moors." 

Washington Irving speaks of the interview 
between Santangel and Isabella as follows : — 

"With an enthusiasm worthy of herself and 
of her cause Isabella exclaimed : 'I undertake 
the enterprise for my own crown of Castile, 
and will pledge my jewels to raise the neces- 
sary funds.'" 

"This was the proudest moment in the life 
of Isabella. Santangel, eager to secure this 
noble impulse assured her that there would be 
no need of her pledging her jewels, as he was 



CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 53 

ready to advance the necessary funds. His 
offer was gladly accepted; the funds really 
came from the coffers of Aragon." 

These facts leave no doubt on the question 
of the jewels and also as to the part Ferdinand 
and Isabella took in aiding Columbus on his 
first voyage of discovery. They smiled on him, 
and Santangel and the Pinzons furnished the 
cash and the ships. 

The brightest feature in the acts of Isabella 
was her sympathy with the suffering inflicted 
on the natives of the new world. A cargo of 
them was taken over to Spain to be used as 
slaves, but were returned by order of the queen, 
and a penalty of death of the culprits in case 
they refused to obey. 

Isabella was a strange compound in this 
matter of tenderness and sensibility to the abuse 
of Amercian Indians and the Moors against 
whom she fought, but whom she would not 
permit to be persecuted. And yet, thus sensi- 
tive to pain, she was the sovereign who con- 
sented to the introduction of the Inquisition 
with all its imaginable horrors. 

Eminently just in her judgment, enforcing 
justice without the slightest reference to the 
wealth or social standing of culprits, she was 
capable of committing acts which in this age 



54 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

of enlightenment are looked upon as gross 
outrages. In Vol. IX, p. 422 of the American 
Encyclopedia, it is said of the queen : — 

"Though the life and soul of the war against 
the Moors, in which she personally took part, 
even wearing armor, she was opposed to the 
cruelty which was then the established policy 
toward that people; and if she decreed the 
expulsion of the Jews from Castile, and gave 
a reluctant consent to the introduction of the 
Inquisition, it was from a conviction that the 
safety of the Catholic faith demanded this 
sacrifice of her private feelings." 

"This sacrifice of her private feelings sent 
160,000 Jews into exile, who were soon after 
followed by 3,000,000 Moors who were given 
the choice between becoming Christians or 
being expatriated." 

In view of these facts in regard to Isabella, 
it is not just that she should be presented to 
the American people as the patron whose 
money and influence brought about the discov- 
ery of the Western Continent. Shall we per- 
petuate a legend which is demonstrated to be 
an untruth solely for the purpose of giving 
a woman prominence? 

The civilization of the northern half of the 
hemisphere is not in the least due to the Span- 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 55 

ish queen, but rather to an English queen, 
Elizabeth. The northern half was discovered 
by Englishmen, the Cabots ; it was first settled 
by Englishmen, mainly under the lead of Sir 
Walter Raleigh, and the patronage of Queen 
Elizabeth, who planted colonies on this por- 
tion of the continent in an area which was 
named Virginia. 

The colonization of the northern half of the 
Western Hemisphere was not the greedy and 
bloody effort of robbers ; it was of a pacific 
people that sought homes, established schools, 
tilled the land, and cultivated the growth of 
civilization. The moral and physical advan- 
tages which North America enjoyed over the 
conditions of South America, are largely due 
to the initial encouragement afforded by "the 
Virgin Queen" in the seventeenth century of 
explorers and colonists. 

Great as was Elizabeth ; great as was the 
age in which she lived, and potent as was the 
assistance she rendered toward the peaceful 
settlement of this northern continent, she is 
an objectionable character. While one of the 
greatest spirits in many essential qualities, of 
her age, or any other, she was nevertheless a 
very bad woman. She was a notorious liar, 
her hands were reddened with the blood of her 



56 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

own sisters and that of many others; a virgin, 
she was unchaste; she was a bigot, she perse- 
cuted Puritans and Catholics, was a trickster 
and treacherous. 

Leaving out all moral considerations, and 
looking only at the benefits which this hemi- 
sphere has derived from the subjects of Eliza- 
beth and Isabella, the balance is lagely in favor 
of the former; but neither is entitled to stand 
for the statue of a woman who represents 
prominence in the discovery of America. 



CHAPTER X 

PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE 

Columbus did not omit the pious argument 
in his presentation of his plans to the monarchs. 
While their avarice for an extension of territo- 
rial domains and for gold was not lost sight 
of, their religious natures were freely stimu- 
lated. 

His mission, he claimed, was as much to 
secure the salvation of the heathen as for any 
other purpose. He was undertaking the voy- 
age for the reason that he wished to fulfill cer- 
tain prophecies in the sacred scriptures which 
clearly foretold the discovery of a new land. 
As if these reasons were not sufficient to awaken 
the religious element, he promised to devote 
a large amount of the profits of the voyage to 
the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre. 

Columbus must be credited with a most 
extraordinary pertinacity which would have 
entitled him to a hero's laurels had he even 

57 



58 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

failed in his voyage of discovery. He had 
labored for eighteen years to bring about the 
end which he sought for. 

His perseverance was the more remarkable 
in view of the character of public sentiment, 
which was hostile, or indifferent ; the priest- 
hood, with a half dozen exceptions, was antag- 
onistic; the entire church believed that it was 
a contravention of the scriptures, and the 
teaching of the fathers to admit that the world 
was spherical, and could be encompassed by 
sailing in one direction. 

The ocean which extended to the western 
sky was an unknown expanse of howling hur- 
ricanes, mysterious dangers, and a region peo- 
pled undoubtedly by ravenous monsters, and 
demons of accursed birth. Columbus did not 
credit these beliefs, born of superstition and 
ignorance ; but the existence of such ideas was 
a powerful obstacle whose full force he encoun- 
tered at a critical time when it came very near 
to ruining his prospects. 

Columbus met a fierce opposition at the very 
outset of his voyage at Palos, the port of 
departure. 

This port, for some offense against the gov- 
ernment, had been ordered to furnish the 
crown, for one year, with two armed vessels. 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 59 

Columbus was given an order for the use of 
these two, and also the necessary papers 
authorizing him to enforce compliance with his 
wishes. 

The leading men of the town were summoned 
to meet Columbus at St. George's- church, 
where the official order of the crown was read 
to place the two caravels and their crews at 
the service of Columbus, a third ship to be 
provided by the latter. The order announced 
that the crews were to implicitly obey the 
orders of Columbus in all things except any 
which might direct them to go to the coast of 
Africa, or any portion of land or sea in the 
possession of Portugal. 

The order further directed the people of 
Andalusia, in the maritime borders, to furnish 
supplies for the vessels at reasonable figures. 
To encourage enlistments, any person who 
should volunteer and against whom there was 
pending a criminal prosecution, such process 
should be suspended during their absence, 
and for an additional period of two months 
after their return from the voyage. 

Of course, this was a bid for the criminal ele- 
ment. It was probably thought that the larger 
the number of this class the better for the 
community, while they were quite good enough 



6o CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

for the purposes of such a voyage as was con- 
templated. Later developments amply demon- 
strated the disadvantage of this criminal ele- 
ment. 

The authorities readily agreed to respond to 
all these demands until the nature of the 
expedition came to be known. Then a panic 
pervaded the community. The ships' crews 
were looked upon as being required for a 
service so desperate that it amounted to the 
sacrifice of their fortunes and their lives. The 
owners of the vessels absolutely refused to 
supply them. The seamen rebelled and shrank 
from this cruise into the unknown. 

Many weeks elapsed, and no vessel was pro- 
cured or anything else asked for in the orders 
of the crown. Additional orders were issued 
by their majesties directing the officials of 
Andalusia to press into service any vessels of 
Spanish ownership, and to oblige the captains 
and crews to sail with Columbus wherever he 
wished to go. A special officer of the royal 
household was sent to see that the order was 
carried out, but he met with no success. 

There was a tremendous confusion among 
the various communities. Riots occurred and 
extended rebellion seemed likely to take place. 

At this critical moment relief came from an 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 6i 

unexpected quarter. There were two naviga- 
torS:, owners of vessels, the brothers Pinzon, 
Martin Alonzo, and Vicente Yanez, who 
stepped forward and offered to furnish two of 
the vessels required. The "Pinta" was one of 
the ships that had been previously pressed into 
the service, and all sorts of obstacles were made 
by the owners to defeat the voyage. Many of 
the seamen who had enlisted willingly, desert- 
ed. 

The example of the Pinzons had all the effect 
to allay this opposition, and to induce many 
of their friends to take part in the expedition. 
The fleet as made up consisted of the "Santa 
Maria" which was the only one of the three 
that had a deck, while the others, the "Nina" 
and the "Pinta" were open caravels. Martin 
Alonzo commanded the "Pinta" and Vicente 
the "Nina." Columbus raised his flag on the 
"Santa Maria." 

As can be learned from this statement, 
Ferdinand and Isabella had little to do with 
the expedition save to issue the orders for the 
outfit; two of the vessels being furnished by 
outsiders, while the smallest and poorest one 
only was due to the crown of Spain. 

Escobar went along as a royal notary to take 
notice of all transactions, There were physi- 



62 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

cians, priests to the number of a dozen or so, 
ninety sailors, making in all one hundred and 
twenty people. 

They sailed out of the harbor of Palos on 
the 3d of August 1492. The feeling in the 
community was gloomy and despondent for 
there were many of the friends and relatives of 
the Andalusian population who had embarked 
on the voyage. This depression on the part 
of the people had a sinister effect upon the sail- 
ors,andfilled them with dismal previsions of dis- 
aster, and a fear that they would never return. 

Just before the anchors were weighed, Colum- 
bus confessd himself to the prior, Juan Perez, 
and partook of the sacrament of the commun- 
ion. His example was followed by his officers 
and crew, and they entered on their enterprise 
with devout and affecting ceremonials, com- 
mitting themselves to the care and guidance, 
and the special protection of Heaven. 

According to Brevoort, in his "Verrazano, " 
after describing the usual route of the early 
navigators from Spain to the West Indies, 
Columbus kept two records of his progress. 
One was an unworthily deceitful one (remind- 
ing us of an earlier deceit when he tampered 
with a compass to mislead his crew), by which 
he hoped to check the apprehensions of his 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 63 

men, arising from his increasing longitude ; 
and the other a dead reckoning of some kind, 
in which he thought he was approximately 
accurate. The story of his capitulating to his 
crew, and agreeing to turn back in three days 
in case land was not reached, is only told by 
Oviedo on the testimony of a pilot hostile to 
Columbus, 



CHAPTER XI 

INTO THE SEA OF DARKNESS 

It requires no stretch of fancy to see, as one 
looks back four centuries, that the occupants of 
the little trinity of vessels leaving the Span- 
ish port were more like a collection of mourn- 
ers, or like condemned victims on their way to 
the scaffold. Of course, this despondency 
was not shared by Columbus. He, on the con- 
trary, must have felt buoyant, happy, and 
inspired by the brightest of hopes. 

The change in his condition was miraculous. 
For nearly a score of years, he had been a 
wanderer, looked on as an idle vagabond by 
some, a semi-crazed visionary by others, and 
an object of contempt and derision of the 
majority with whom he came in contact. 

It must have been a balm to his hurts, as 

he stood on the deck of the "Santa Maria," with 

the prow of his fleet pointing directly into the 

mysterious West. 

64 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 65 

He was no longer humble, neglected, sub- 
ject to the insults of the world ; he was now an 
admiral, a viceroy, with dignities and power 
but little below those of the monarchs whom he 
served. It is not, however, probable that he 
gave much more than a brief retrospective 
glance over his experiences of his long and 
weary journey from pauperhood to princeship j 
he rather looked ahead into the future. 

What he saw can easily be imagined. It 
was a roseate view. India, with its perfumes 
and spices, its pearls and precious diamonds, 
its shining gold-dust, its brilliant dyes. He 
carried a letter to the mighty Khan of India, 
and his mind dwelt with pride on the recep- 
tion which would be given him, and the honors 
conferred on him in the white marble palace of 
the Indian potentate. He strolled in imagi- 
nation through the magnificent streets of the 
new found city of Cipango. 

It is even possible that it may have come 
within his vision that he should find the domain 
of the famous Prester John, the mysterious king, 
who was white, whose banner bore the cross, 
and who ruled a kingdom, of Christian subjects. 
What a welcome he would receive from this 
Prester John, who was believed to be immortal, 
as his existence had been spoken of for more 



66 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

than four centuries, by travelers who had vis- 
ited India, who always heard of this monarch 
but never could just reach the region in which 
he reigned. 

And thus thinking, dreaming, hoping, elated, 
with his nerves thrilling with expectation, and 
his blood racing through his veins, Columbus 
sailed westward and plunged boldly into the 
depths of the Unknown. 

The weather was fair and the initiation of 
the voyage was filled with happy portents 
from smooth waves and smiling skies. At no 
period during his voyage did the elements 
afford opposition to his progress; on the con- 
trary, it seemed sentient, to know his pur- 
pose, and aided him with quiet waves and 
favoring gales. 

It was not in his surroundings that dangers 
lurked, but in the human forces that accom- 
panied him. Storms arose, destruction menaced 
the expedition, but it was all within, not with- 
out the vessels. 

The first interruption came from the failure 
of the rudder of the "Pinta." As this was the 
ship whose services were forcibly taken by the 
crown, Columbus had reason to suspect that 
the damage had been arranged in advance by 
the dissatisfied owners. 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 67 

The fleet ran into a harbor in the Canaries, 
where a new rudder was made and, after a 
delay of several weeks, the voyage was resumed. 
When they lost sight of the Canaries, they 
were beyond the limit of known navigation, 
and the crew began to rapidly lose heart. They 
had left the known world behind them. They 
were going they knew not whither. They wept, 
and showed their grief and despair in clamor- 
ous complainings. The sight of a mast float- 
ing by them, and which seemed to have been 
a long time in the water, gave them an addi- 
tional shock. It was suggestive of what would 
happen to them in the frightful darkness be- 
yond. Columbus tried to reassure them. He 
held out to them visions of unlimited wealth, 
and appealed to their cupidity, their passions, 
and every other motive which would reconcile 
them to their journey. As stated, he concealed 
with a false record the number of leagues 
passed over each day. 

Thirty days after leaving Palos, the voyagers 
were cheered by the sight of a heron, and a wag- 
tail> birds which are not believed to venture 
very far from land. In due season, the fleet 
fell within the influence of the trade winds and 
sailed on in a delicious atmosphere and over 
pacific waters. Weeds began to make their 



68 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

appearance ; a white bird flew about the ship, 
one of the kind that never sleeps on the sea. 

The birds were harbingers of good, and it is 
largely to their cheering presence and matutinal 
songs that the crew was kept from open rebel- 
lion. 

Nevertheless it required the utmost patience, 
watchfulness, and the exercise of all sorts of 
ingenious expedients on the part of the admiral 
to prevent an open outbreak. For a time the 
crew was delighted with the trade wind which 
bore them smoothly on ; and then they becam.e 
alarmed at its long continuance, for then they 
feared it would always blow from the east, and 
thus prevent their return to Spain. 

When they first met masses of floating weeds, 
they were gratified because they thought it 
was an indication of the nearness of land ; and 
when the weeds became denser, they became 
frightened thinking they might become impris- 
oned in the thick vegetation from which they 
would never be able to extricate themselves. 
When it was calm they were equally dissatis- 
fied, for then they thought they had reached a 
region where the air was stagnant, and they 
might rot in the windless sea. 

The task of placating the sailors tested to 
the extreme the efforts of the admiral. They 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 69 

talked over their doubts, fears, and discontent, 
at. first, among themselves, and in time these 
mutterings became louder and reached the ears 
of the officers. The situation became critical ; 
they began to regard Columbus as a soulless 
adventurer who was willing to imperil their 
lives to gratify some useless purpose. It was 
about decided to throw their commander into 
the sea, attributing it to accident, and then 
return to Spain. It was just at a time, when 
the expedition was on the point of being ruined 
by mutiny, when there rang out from the"Pinta, " 
the thrilling cry of: "Land! Land!" It was 
Martin Alonzo Pinzon who shouted the tidings. 

Everything was at once turned into joy, but 
the joy became despair when after sailing all 
night toward what had been supposed to be 
land proved to be a deception. Several days 
followed in which there was an incessant cry 
of "Land!" from the sailors, but there proved 
to be no foundation for the alarm. 

On the ist of October the reckoning showed 
that they had sailed five hundred and eighty 
leagues from the Canary Islands, while the pri- 
vate reckoning kept by Columbus showed the 
distance to be seven hundred and seven. For 
a week the men were discouraged and muti- 
nous, and it is marvelous that they did not seize 



70 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

the ship, and turn the prow homeward. A lit- 
tle thing diverted their atttention from their 
wretched thoughts and rekindled their smol- 
dering hopes. 

Several of the people saw a light, one night 
on the horizon, Columbus being the first to 
detect it. At two in the morning of the same 
night, the roar of a gun from the "Pinta" gave 
the joyful signal that land was in sight. It was 
discovered by a sailor named Rodrigo Triana, 
who claimed the reward offered to the first who 
should discover land, but it was taken by 
Columbus who first saw the light. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE NEW WORLD 

It was on the 12th of October that the New 
World presented itself to the view of the expe- 
dition. It was a low island, densely wooded 
from out the depths of which there poured 
masses of people who covered the shores, and 
watched, with boundless astonishment, the 
white-winged ships, which to them must have 
seemed monstrous birds swimming over the 
water. 

A landing was made from the small boats, 
after the ships had dropped their anchors. In 
order to impress the strangers with the splendor 
of their appearance, Columbus wore a scarlet 
wrap, and held aloft the gorgeous banner of 
Spain, while the brothers Pinzon each in his own 
boat also carried banners, green in hue, and 
decorated with golden letters, "F," and "I," 
for Ferdinand and Isabella. The men were 
clad in glittering steel, and stuffs of brilliant 



^2 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

colors, so that the procession of boats, with 
its scarlet, gold, green, and other bright hues 
must have resembled a floral march. 

All of them threw themselves on their knees 
when they landed to return thanks for the for- 
tunate outcome of their journey. The admiral 
then drew his sword, and took possession of the 
island in the name of the Spanish sovereigns, 
and gave it the name of San Salvador. As is 
known, the island is one of the group of Baha- 
mas, and a long distance from the America 
which Columbus has the credit of having dis- 
covered. 

So soon as the natives saw the approach of 
the small boats filled with beings with white 
faces and long beards, they fled in terror to 
the depths of the woods in which they con- 
cealed themselves, terrified at the spectacle 
which seemed to have risen out of the deep. 

The place and the people suggested Eden 
before the fall. The air was pure and inspir- 
ing, the skies soft, blue, and tender ; the vege- 
tation was rich in coloring, and of a wonderful 
beauty, and the trees were loaded with unknown 
fruits. The natives, without exception, men, 
women, children, wore no clothing. They 
were as naked as were Adam and Eve before 
they ate the forbidden fruit. They were beard- 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 73 

less, tawny, or copper-colored, with long 
straight black hair. 

The adults were tall, well-formed, with fine 
foreheads and piercing eyes. Only one woman 
was among those of them who ventured to 
approach the Spaniards, and she, like the others, 
was entirely naked. They were friendly, and 
seemed to have the gentleness of a race pos- 
sessed only of the milder qualities of character. 
Their arms were wooden lances hardened at 
the ends by fire, and pointed with the bones 
of fish. 

The admiral distributed among them some 
gaudy presents such as colored glass-beads and 
hawk's bells with which they were immensely 
delighted. They supposed from the munifi- 
cence of the Spaniards that they were gods who 
had come to them from the sky. Columbus, 
under the impression that he had reached India 
spoke of the natives as Indians, a misnomer 
which extended to the main land, with the 
result that all the aboriginal inhabitants of 
both North and South America have since 
been known as Indians. 

Some of the natives had ornaments of gold in 
their noses, a sight which undoubtedly conferred 
greater satisfaction among the Spaniards than 
even the sight of land in their extremity. The 



74 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

simple natives unaware of the intrinsic value 
of the metal traded their ornaments for colored 
glass-beads, and beyond doubt thought the 
Spaniards to be a very liberal, and credulous 
people. They informed the visitors, as they 
best could, when asked where they obtained 
the material of which their ornaments were 
made, that it came from the south, where there 
was a king with great wealth who ate from 
vessels of gold. 

Columbus at once concluded that the region 
abounding in gold was the noted Cipango, 
and that the king was the one whose wealth, 
power, and splendor had been reported by 
Marco Polo. He sailed in the direction indi- 
cated, but found no other island which differed 
in any particular respect from San Salvador, 
the one first discovered, and known to the 
natives as Guanahane. He found, however, 
everywhere a most delicious climate, nourish- 
ing fruit, cool, pure water from shaded springs, 
and received every attention which could be 
afforded by the natives. 

Still as they found no gold, in any quantities, 
their disappointment was great. They undoubt- 
edly appreciated the kindness of the Indians, 
but what they were in search of was gold. 
Columbus treated the people with the utmost 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 75 

gentleness, his motive probably being to secure 
their good will and obtain from them informa- 
tion as to where the mines of precious metals 
were located. It was always an island farther 
on, according to his informants, and Columbus 
sailed on from island to island looking vainly 
for an ignis fatuus which constantly wooed him 
and as constantly eluded him. 

The fourth island which he reached was one 
of the Bahamas where he expected to find a 
great monarch and rich gold-mines, but, as 
usual, found neither. It was a very charming 
place, however, concerning which an extract 
from his journal contains the following: — 

"Here are large lakes and the groves about 
them are marvelous ; and here and in all the 
islands everything is green, as in April in An- 
dalusia. The singing of the birds is such that 
it seems as if one would never desire to depart 
hence. There are flocks of parrots which ob- 
scure the sun, and other birds large and small, 
of so many kinds so different from ours, that it 
is wonderful : and besides, there are trees of a 
thousand species, each having its particular 
fruit, and all of marvelous flavor, so that I am 
in the greatest trouble in the world not to 
know them, for I am certain that they are each 
of great value. I shall bring home some of 



76 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

them as specimens, and also some of the herbs. " 
To this beautiful island he gave the name of 
the queen, Isabella. He was very anxious to 
discover the drugs and spices of the east, and 
on approaching this island, thought he detected 
in the air the spicy odors said to be wafted 
from the islands of the Indian seas. 

"As I arrived at this cape," says he, "there 
came thsnce a fragrance so good and soft from 
the flowers or the trees of the land that it was 
the sweetest thing in the world. I believe 
that there are here many trees and herbs which 
would be of great price in Spain for tinctures, 
medicines, and spices ; but I know nothing of 
them, which gives me great' concern. " 

He goes on further to say that the fish which 
abounded in these seas, partook of the novelty 
which characterized most of the objects in the 
New World. They rivaled the birds in trop- 
ical brilliancy of color, the scales of some of 
them glancing back the rays of light like pre- 
cious stones ; and the dolphins, taken out of 
their element, delighted the eye with the 
changes of colors ascribed in fable to the cha- 
meleon. 



CHAPTER XIII 

COLUMBUS REACHES CUBA 

Columbus left this delicious island called by 
the natives Saometo, and sailed on the 24th of 
October at midnight in search of an island 
called Cuba, which from the signs of the natives 
he undertsood to be of great extent, producing 
gold, pearls, and spices and carrying on an 
extensive commerce in these precious articles, 
and that large merchant ships came to trade 
with its inhabitants. 

He was now certain that this island must be 
the famous Cipango, and the merchant ships 
those of the Grand Khan. He therefore deter- 
mined to sail at once for this island and make 
himself acquainted with its forts, cities, and 
productions for the purpose of establishing 
relations of traffic. 

After having visited Cuba he had it in his 
program to visit another great island named 
Bohio, concerning which there were given mar- 

V7 



78 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

velous accounts by the natives. His stay in 
those islands would depend upon the extent of 
the precious metals and stones and other val- 
uable articles which he would find there. After 
this he would sail by the main land of India 
which must be within ten days journe}^, and 
find the city of Quinsai, which according to 
Marco Polo was one of the most magnificent 
capitals in the world ; he would there deliver 
in person the letters of the Castilian Govern- 
ment to the Grand Khan, and when he received 
his reply, return triumphantly to Spain with 
this document, to prove that he had accom- 
plished the great object of his voyage. Such 
was the splendid scheme with which Colum- 
bus fed his imagination, when about to leave 
the Bahamas in quest of the island of Cuba. 

This program of the admiral is given by the 
historian Navarrete, and is credited to the 
journal of Columbus. 

Three days after leaving Isabella, he came 
in sight of Cuba, on the morning of the 28th 
of October. He was struck as he approached 
the island by its magnificence, its lofty moun- 
tains, its great plains traversed by mighty riv- 
ers, its stately forests, its grand promontories 
and headlands which melted away into the 
remotest distance. He took possession of the 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 79 

island and gave it the name of Buena, in honor 
of Prince Juan, and to the river in which he 
landed, the name of San Salvador. 

In his journal a continual eulogy is made by 
Columbus on the beauty of the country. "There 
is a wonderful splendor," he says, "variety and 
luxuriance in the vegetation of these quick and 
ardent climates. The verdure of the groves 
and the colors of the flowers and blossoms, 
derive a vividness from the transparent purity 
of the air, and the deep serenity of the azure 
heavens. The forests, too, are full of life, 
swarming with birds of brilliant plumage. 
Painted varieties of parrots and woodpeckers 
create a glitter in the verdure of groves, and the 
humming birds dart from flower to flower 
resembling animated particles of a rainbow. 
The scarlet flamingoes, too, seen sometimes 
through the opening of the forest, have the 
appearance of soldiers drawn up in a battalion, 
with an advance scout on the alert to give 
notice of approaching danger. Nor is the 
least beautiful part of animated nature the vari- 
ous tribes of insects peopling every plant, 
and displaying brilliant coats of mail which 
sparkle like precious gems." 

Columbus did not doubt that this wonderful 
island possessed mines of gold and groves of 



8o CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

spices, and that it was certainly the Island of 
Cipango. He sailed westward to find the mag- 
nificent city where its king was situated. He 
at last discovered, on further examination, that 
this v»7as not the Island of Cipango, but he con- 
cluded that he had reached the mainland of 
India, and if so he could not be at any great 
distance from Mangi and Cathay, the ultimate 
destination of his voyage. He thought that 
the prince in question who reigned over this 
neighboring country, must be some Oriental 
potentate of consequence, and that he would 
find him and send a present to the monarch 
with one of the letters from the Castilian sov- 
ereign ; and after visiting his dominions, he 
would proceed to the capital of Cathay, the 
residence of the Grand Khan. 

So sure was Columbus that he was on the 
borders of Cathay that he sent a delegation of 
two Spaniards and an Indian to find the mon- 
arch, and to deliver to him the assurance that 
he was a friend and the bearer of a letter from 
the sovereign of Castile to the Grand Khan. 

The ambassadors returned after an absence of 
some weeks. They found no great monarch, 
no indications of gold, no precious stones, no 
spices ; simply found the capital an Indian 
collection of huts with about a thousand inhab- 



CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 8 1 

itants, who were the average natives, naked, 
hospitable, guileless, and simple. 

There was one who seemed to have some 
authority, but there was no princely potentate 
such as Columbus anticipated finding. He 
wore no royal robes, but went about in a state 
of unclad purit}', occupying no palace, but liv- 
ing in a plain hut like his subjects. 

Navarrete, in his "First Voyage of Colum- 
bus," relates an event which will be a novelt}'' 
to most people who have supposed that to Sir 
Walter Raleigh is due the discovery of tobacco- 
smoking. "On their return, the ambassadors 
witnessed," says Navarrete, "the use of a weed, 
which the caprice of men has since converted 
into a universal luxury in defiance of the oppo- 
sition of the senses. They beheld several 
natives going along with firebrands in their 
hands, and certain dried herbs which they 
rolled up in a leaf, and lighting one end, put 
the other in their mouths, and continued exhal- 
ing and puffing out the smoke. A roll of this 
kind, they called tobacco, a name since trans- 
ferred to the plant from which the rolls were 
made. The Spaniards, although prepared to 
meet with wonders, were struck with astonish- 
ment at this singular and apparently nauseous 
indulgence." 



82 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

It thus appears that the use of the cigarette 
was discovered four hundred years ago, on the 
very island which has ever since been the chief 
source of its growth and manufacture. Colum- 
bus, in his eager search for gold, precious stones, 
and spices, overlooked in the tobacco-plant a 
mine of wealth that has since yielded untold 
millions of dollars on the very island where he 
discovered it. 

The returned ambassadors gave rose-colored 
reports of the character of the country. They 
had encountered many small settlements sur- 
rounded by fields in which were growing in 
luxuriance, sweet pepper, potatoes, Indian- 
corn ; many of the trees bore fruits at once 
plentiful and nutritious, among which was the 
yuca, and lupine from which the natives made 
bread. 

This report ended Columbus' dream of find- 
ing Cuba the opulent Cipango of the ancient 
writers. Nevertheless, the hope of finding gold- 
bearing regions was not yet extinguished. 
Natives informed him by signs of a place in 
the east where the people collected gold along 
the banks of streams, and made it into bars; and 
concerning which they used the words Babique, 
and Bohio, which the admiral construed as 
names of places. Taking aboard several of the 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 83 

Cubans of both sexes, for the purpose of carry- 
ing them to Spain, where they could learn the 
language, and thereafter act as interpreters, he 
set out in search of Babique, or Bohio. 

Had Columbus not been diverted from his 
course by this change in its direction, he would 
have rounded Cuba, and found that it was not 
a portion of the mainland, and might have dis- 
covered the continent by being carried by the 
gulf stream either to Florida or Yucatan. After 
sailing several days toward Babique, as he sup- 
posed, he encountered a furious storm, and 
when it had cleared away, he found that the 
„Pinta, commanded by Pinzon had disappeared. 

This very much disturbed the commander. 
He knew that Pinzon was jealous of him, and 
his first impression was that Pinzon had sailed 
for Spain for the purpose of securing the honors 
of the discovery of India. This altered the 
intention of Columbus, and he gave up the 
Babique trip, and returned to the coast of Cuba. 
This was in November. 

When Columbus reached the eastern limits 
of Cuba, he saw in the southeast some high- 
lands, toward which he sailed, and discovered 
Hayti. If it were possible, Columbus admired 
this island more than even Cuba; its sole fault 
was that it furnished no signs of gold. The 



84 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

inhabitants were found to be superior in build 
and look to the natives of the islands hitheito 
visited. They were boundlessly hospitable ; their 
doors were never closed ; their condition was 
the ideal of a perfect life in a state of nature. 
The climate was equable and salubrious; no 
labor was necessary to plant, or cultivate arti- 
cles of food. All these were supplied by benefi- 
cent nature. Peter Martyr, who gained his 
information from conversations with Columbus, 
pays high compliments to the honesty and the 
integrity of the natives of this favored island. 
The land is not owned by individuals, and 
"hence mine and thine have no place among 
them. They are content with so little, that 
in so large a country they have rather super- 
fluity than scarcity; so that they seem to live 
in the golden world, without toil, living in 
open gardens ; not entrenched with dykes, 
divided with hedges, or defended with walls. 
They deal truly with each other without laws, 
without books, and without judges. They 
take him for an evil and mischievous man, who 
taketh pleasure in doing hurt to another; and 
albeit they delight not in superfluities, yet they 
make provisions for the increase of such roots 
whereof they make their bread, contented with 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 85 

such simple dijet whereby health is preserved 
and disease avoided." 

This picture is generally confirmed by con- 
temporary historians. All of them agree, in 
presenting the life of these islanders as ap- 
proaching to the golden state of poetical felic- 
ity ; living under the absolute but easy rule of 
their caciques, free from pride, with few wants, 
and abundant country, a happily tempered cli- 
mate, and a natural disposition to careless and 
indolent enjoyment. 

On the 14th of December Columbus made 
another attempt to find the Island of Babique; 
and on his route visited an island lying oppo- 
site the harbor of Conception, to which, from 
the great number of turtles in the vicinity he 
gave the name of Tortugas, and which was the 
island which later became the headquarters of 
the renowned buccaneers. For some reason 
Columbus abandoned his search for Babique, 
and nothing more is said of it in any of his 
records. 

He visited Hispaniola where he obtained 
but little gold, although whatever the natives 
possessed the)^ readily presented him, and was 
well treated by the islanders. He was called 
upon by the young cacique, who came carried 
by four men on a sort of a litter, and escorted 



86 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

by two hundred of his subjects. If anything 
was given him to eat or drink he merely tasted 
it and sent it to his men on the outside. What 
probably most pleased Columbus was that the 
young chief gave him two pieces of gold. The 
admiral tried to explain to him something about 
the greatness of Spain ; but the cacique would 
not believe that there was a region on the earth 
that produced these wonderful people and 
things; he believed that they were immortal, 
and that the people and kings of whom he 
talked must exist somewhere in the sky. 

On the igth of December, 1492, he sailed and 
discovered an island which he named St. 
Thomas, where they were visited by a large 
canoe filled with natives, who brought the 
admiral a present of a broad belt, wrought 
ingeniously with colored beads and bones; and 
a wooden mask, the eyes and nose and tongue 
of which were of gold. 

A few days later, Columbus set sail from port 
St. Thomas. The wind was from the land, but 
so light that the ship made little progress. Co- 
lumbus finding the sea calm and smooth, retired 
to rest, not having slept the preceding night. 
He no sooner disappeared than the helmsman 
gave the tiller in charge to one of the ship's boys 
and went to sleep. The rest of the sailors took 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 87 

advantage of the absence of Columbus and also 
went to sleep. The ship floated up on a sand 
bank and it was impossible to get her off. The 
shock opened several leaks, and the admiral 
and his men took refuge on board the caravel. 
It speaks well for the honesty of the cacique, 
who when he heard of the wreck was affected 
even to tears, that he immediately sent his 
people with all the canoes they could muster, 
and removed the effects to a point near his 
dwelling, where he placed armed guards around 
them until proper shelter could be prepared 
for them. Not the most trifling article was 
taken during the work of transporting the 
goods. 

"So loving, so tractable, so peaceable," says 
Columbus in his journal, "that I swear to your 
majesties there is not in the world a better 
nation, nor a better land. They love their 
neighbors as themselves ; and their discourse is 
sweet and gentle, and accompanied with a 
smile ; and though it is true that they are naked, 
yet their manners are decorous and praise- 
worthy." 

So pleasant was this island, and so friendly 
the cacique that Columbus concluded that it 
would be a good place to establish the germ 
of a colony. The wreck of the caravel gave 



88 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

materials for a fort upon which were placed 
her guns, and provisions enough to maintain 
the garrison for a year. The natives gave all 
possible assistance to the building of the for- 
tress, little dreaming what would be the effect 
upon themselves in the future. 

In ten days the fortress was completed, so 
ample was the assistance of the natives. He 
gave the place the name of La Navidad, or the 
Nativity, in memory of having escaped a wreck 
on Christmas Day. He selected thirty-nine of 
the men who volunteered to remain on the 
island, including a physician, ship carpenter, 
cooper, tailor, and gunner, all expert at their 
several professions. And then he set sail for 
Spain on the 4th of January 1493. 

On the 6th, a sailor at the masthead saw 
the "Pinta" at a distance. When the ships 
joined each other, the admiral had a conver- 
sation with Pinzon at which the latter tried to 
excuse his desertion sa3ang that he had been 
driven to part company by the weather, and 
had ever since been trying to rejoin the admiral. 
Private information received by Columbus 
showed that he had remained in Hispaniola 
several weeks trading with the natives, and 
had collected a considerable quantity of gold, 



CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 8g 

half of which he retained as captain ; the rest 
he divided among his men to secure their 
fidelity and secrecy. 



CHAPTER XIV 

HOMEWARD BOUND 

The point where Pinzon had traded with the 
natives was a river called by the natives Yaqui. 
Columbus landed there for a short time and 
found many particles of gold in the sand at 
its mouth. He mentions in his journal that 
he saw two mermaids, who elevated themselves 
above the surface of the sea. They were not 
the beautiful green that they are generally 
rumored to be ; it is supposed that they must 
have been sea-calves. 

The natives of the place complained that 
Pinzon had, on his previous visit, violently 
carried off four men and two girls. Finding 
that they were retained on the "Pinta" to be 
taken to Spain to be sold as slaves, the admiral 
immediately ordered that they be restored to 
their homes, with many presents, and well 
clothed. Pinzon objected, used violent Ian- 



CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 9 1 

guage, and gave them up with great unwilling- 
ness. 

A little beyond this they anchored near a 
spot where they found the natives very differ- 
ent from those they had hitherto met. Las 
Casas says of them : — 

"They were of a ferocious aspect and hide- 
ously painted. Their hair was long, tied 
behind, and decorated with the feathers of 
parrots and other birds of gaudy plumage. 
Some were armed with war clubs ; others had 
bows of the length of those used by the English 
archers, with arrows of slender reeds pointed 
with hard wood, or tipped with bone or the 
tooth of a iish. Their swoirds were of palm- 
wood, as hard and heavy as iron ; not sharp, 
but broad, nearly of the thickness of two fin- 
gers, and capable, with one blow, of cleaving 
through a helmet to the very brains. Though 
thus prepared for combat, they made no attempt 
to molest the Spaniards ; on the contrary, they 
sold them two of their bows and several of 
their arrows, and one of them was induced to 
go on board the admiral's ship." 

This warrior, who was one of ferocious looks 
and undaunted manner, spoke of an island 
called Nantinino, which was peopled by women 
who received visits from the Caribs yearly for 



92 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

the sake of continuing the population of their 
island. All the male progeny resulting from 
such visits were delivered to the fathers, the 
female remaining with the mother. 

It is probable that this Amazonian island is 
another of the delusions of Columbus, based 
on the work of Marco Polo. The latter describes 
two islands near the coast of Asia, one occupied 
solely by the women, the other by men, between 
which a like intercourse existed ; and Columbus 
supposing himself in that vicinity, easily 
believed the statement of the native to agree 
with the description of the Venetian. 

A boat was sent out to the land, carrying the 
single warrior, with the hope of securing a 
trade for gold. As the boat neared the shore, a 
large number of natives armed with bows and 
arrows, war clubs and javelins, were seen 
among the trees. The Spaniards attempted to 
purchase some of their weapons to take home 
as curiosities. Two bows were obtained ; but 
suddenly they rushed back to the place where 
the}^ had left their weapons, picked them up, 
and returned with cords as if to bind the Span- 
iards. The latter immediately attacked them, 
wounded two, and routed the others. This 
was the first contest with the Indians, and the 



CHRISTOFHJ^R COLUMBUS 93 

first time that native blood was shed by the 
white men in the New World. 

Columbus now, the i6th of January, headed 
his caravels for Spain, and during the remainder 
of the month the trade winds retarded him, 
blowing strongly from the east. He was also 
detained by the bad sailing of the "Pinta" which 
could carry but little sail. On the 12th of 
February they encountered a tremendous storm 
which lasted for three days, and was accom- 
panied by awful thunder and lightning. One 
can fancy how perilous was the condition of 
these two vessels, which had no decks, and over 
which the waves dashed every moment. Dur- 
ing the storm the "Pinta" was driven southward 
and disappeared. 

Columbus endeavored to propitiate the heav- 
ens by religious acts. A number of beans, 
equal to the number of persons on board were 
put into a hat, on one of which was cut the 
sign of the cross. It was agreed that each of 
the crew should draw from the hat, and the 
one that secured the marked bean would make 
a pilgrimage to the shrine of Santa Maria de 
Guadalupe, bearing a white taper of five pounds 
weight. The admiral was the first to put his 
hand in and the lot fell on him. A second lot 
was cast in the same way for a pilgrimage to 



94 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

the chapel of Our Lady of Loretto, which fell 
upon a seaman, Pedro de Villa ; and a third for 
a pilgrimage to Santa Clara de Moguer, to per- 
form a solemn mass, and to watch all night 
in the chapel, which fell on Columbus. 

These acts did not seem to affect the tempest 
in the least, for it raged with all its old vio- 
lence. Conceiving that the ceremonials were 
not sufficiently strong, something more difficult 
was devised. What they selected was something 
quite unique. They made a vow that if spared, 
at the first place they landed, they would go 
in procession, barefooted, and in their shirts, to 
offer prayers and thanksgiving in some church 
dedicated to the Holy Virgin. In addition to 
these efforts to placate the tempest, each one 
made a private vow to perform some religious 
act at his favorite shrine. 

Still the storm was relentless. It grew more 
wild and frightful, and each man gave himself 
up for lost. Columbus was very much alarmed 
fearing that the "Pinta" had foundered,and that 
the whole history of the discoveries rested 
upon the security of his own feeble bark, 
which any moment might be buried in the 
ocean. 

An expedient suggested itself by which, in 
case the ship perished, the glory of his discov- 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 95 

eries might be preserved. He wrote an account 
of his voyage on parchment, sealed it, directed 
it to the king and queen, with a promise of a 
thousand ducats to the person who should 
deliver the package unopened. He then wrapped 
it in a waxed cloth, which he placed in the 
center of a cake of wax, and enclosed the whole 
in a barrel, which he threw into the sea. He 
also prepared another copy of the same, and 
placed it in a barrel on the poop, so that if the 
caravel should be swallowed up, the barrel 
would float off and survive. 

February 15th land was seen, and they soon 
came in sight of an island. For two days they 
tried to reach it but were driven off by the 
tempest. After beating off and on for several 
days, they landed, found it to be one of the 
Azores, belonging to the Portuguese. For 
fifteen days they had been beset by a gale of 
unexampled hixy. The next morning they 
undertook to carry out their vow for a proces- 
sion to a chapel dedicated to the Virgin. One- 
half of the crew barefooted and in their shirts 
moved to the chapel ; while Columbus awaited 
their return to perform the same ceremony 
with the others. Scarcely had they begun 
their prayers when they were surrounded by 
a mob that took them all prisoners. 



96 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

The ship with the remainder of the crew 
was driven out to sea by the storm, and returned 
to the island at the end of two days. The gov- 
ernor of the island came aboard, and much 
wrangling ensued between him and Columbus. 
The governor finally announced that if they 
were really in the service of Spain, he would 
render them every service. The next day the 
boat and crew were liberated. 

It was later ascertained that the arrest was 
made by the order of the king of Portugal, 
who was jealous ; fearing that the expedition 
of Columbus, might interfere with his own dis- 
coveries, he had sent orders to the islands 
and distant ports to detain him wherever he 
should be met with. 

Castaneda, the governor of St. Mary% had 
expected to surprise Columbus in the chapel, 
but failing in this he had been obliged to let 
him go, as his papers showed that he had in 
no way intrenched on the possessions of the 
Portuguese, 



CHAPTER XV 

VISITS PORTUGAL — THEN HOME 

When Columbus left St. Mary's Island, he 
again encountered a tremendous tempest, dur- 
ing which his vessel became unmanageable. 
Destruction menaced the frail vessel ; its sails 
were carried away, and the ship drifted under 
bare poles. ^ 

Another attempt was made to placate the 
assumed wrath of heaven by casting lots to 
select one to make a pilgrimage to the shrine 
of Santa Maria de la Cueva, in Huelva, and 
strange to say, Columbus, for the third time 
drew the winning number. Still, despite this 
additional effort to mitigate the anger of the 
fates, the tempest increased in fury. 

As the pilgrimage determined on to the shrine 
of Santa Maria de la Cueva did seem to pro- 
duce the cessation of the tempest, the ingen- 
ious mariners, persistent in their devotion, 
unanimously vowed that if the commotion of 



97 



98 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

the elements could be made to subside, they 
would "fast" on bread and water the next Sat- 
urday. The fates seemed to regard this proffer 
as something offensive, and at once increased 
the height of the waves, and the fury of the 
winds. 

All the next day the storm increased in 
dimensions, lightnings rent the black clouds, 
and hoarse incessant thunders shook the very 
firmament. Not a soul on the "Nina" expected 
ever to reach the shore alive. It must have 
been a distracting thought to Columbus as he 
reflected on the smooth seas, the warm breezes, 
and the spiced airs which greeted his arrival 
in the New World, among heathen, and the 
fearful buffeting which he was undergoing as 
he neared the shores of the old world, occu- 
pied by Christian shrines, churches, crosses, and 
all the creations of a high civilization. 

The night following the day was, if possible, 
still worse in the developments of the raging 
tempest. Land was discovered as the day 
closed, and as the admiral did not know where 
they were nor how to manage the vessel, 
the vicinity of land increased his apprehen- 
sions. He lowered sails, and kept out at sea 
as much as possible till daylight, when he 
found that he was opposite the mouth of the 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 99 

Tagus River, which was pouring into the sea 
from the soil of Portugal. 

Columbus knew of the hostility of Portugal 
toward his expedition, but the storm left him 
no other recourse, and he was forced to seek 
shelter in the Portuguese port. He immedi- 
ately sent off messengers to the Spanish sover- 
eigns of his arrival, and communication to the 
king of Portugal, asking permission to visit 
Lisbon. The excuse which Columbus makes 
for this last communication is that the report 
having become circulated that his ship was 
laden with gold, anchorage in the vicinity of 
the mouth of the Tagus was not safe. On the 
other hand, there is a belief abroad that the 
admiral, finding himself so near the Portuguese 
Court, could not resist the opportunit}^ to 
revenge himself for the slight put on him by 
King John in rejecting his proposals. 

It was an ingenious scheme to show the 
monarch how short-sighted he had been in his 
action when Columbus appeared at his Court 
and humbly asked his support. How John 
would writhe with chagrin and jealousy when 
he learned that Portugal, which had hitherto 
stood far in advance for its geographical expe- 
ditions and discoveries, was now excelled by a 



lOo CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

despised rival nation which had never devel- 
oped any desire for maritime explorations. 

On the 8th of March a letter came from 
King John, complimenting the admiral on his 
achievements, and inviting him to visit the 
Court, then at Valparaiso. He set out accom- 
panied only by his pilot, and was met by an 
escort which conducted him to the royal pal- 
ace, where he was received with the highest 
honors. A long conversation occurred between 
the two, in which the king appeared very much 
pleased with what Columbus related of his dis- 
coveries, but it is not impossible that, in his 
inner soul, he was overwhelmed with rage and 
mortification over what he had lost. 

King John thought, or pretended to think, that 
Columbus had possibly trenched on his terri- 
torial domains which had been granted him by 
a papal bull, and which included all the west- 
ern coast of Africa and as far as the Indies, 
providing that the land should be discovered by 
the Portuguese. The king submitted this view 
to his advisers who eagerly agreed with his 
majesty, among whom were some of those 
who advised with scorn the rejection of pro- 
posals which Columbus had made to Portugal. 

They spared no falsehood, or detraction to 
belittle the reputed discoveries of Columbus, 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS loi 

and some of them even went to the wretched 
extremity of advocating the assassination of 
the admiral ; a fact which is affirmed by both 
Spanish and Portuguese historians. King John 
was too magnanimous to adopt this advice, or 
too cowardly, but he adopted a plan which was 
scarcely less mean. He resolved to let Colum- 
bus return to Spain, and before the latter 
would be ready to make a second voyage, he 
would send a naval force, under guidance of 
two Portuguese sailors who had accompanied 
Columbus, and take possession of the new 
region, and retain possession by force of arms. 
Columbus returned to Spain, entering the 
harbor of Palos on the 15th of March, 1493, 
having sailed from the same port August 3rd 
of the preceding 3^ear, having been absent a 
ittle over seven months. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE RECEPTION AT PALOS 

Columbus left Palos on a Friday, first dis- 
covered land on a Friday, and re entered 
Palos on a Friday. It may be a question, in 
view of all the things connected with his voy- 
age and personal experiences, whether or not 
this incidental connection with the usually 
ominous Friday may not have been portentous 
of ill-luck. 

In the spring of 1493, while the Spanish 
court was still at Barcelona, letters were 
received from Columbus, announcing his return 
to Spain, and his success in finding land in 
the western ocean. The joy and astonishment 
created b}' this informaton were in proportion 
to the skepticism with which his project had 
been originally viewed. Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella were naturally eager to learn the extent 
and the like of the said discover}^, and they 



' CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 103 

sent instructions that he should come to Barce- 
lona at once. 

Here may be inserted a letter from Colum- 
bus which was written at Lisbon to the treas- 
urer Sanchez, in which he displays his supreme 
satisfaction. 

"Let processions be made, festivals held, 
temples filled with branches and flowers, for 
Christ rejoices on earth as in Heaven, seeing 
the future redemption of souls. Let us rejoice 
also for the temporal benefit likely to result not 
only to Spain, but to all Christendom." 

Could Columbus have foreseen the events of 
the next century, there would possibly have 
been a modification of his pious exaltation. 

It may readily be imagined that when the lit- 
tle caravel, "Nina," appeared in the harbor of 
Palos, a tremedous excitement was the result. 
For months the community had believed that 
it had been swallowed up by the ocean, for the 
weather which they had experienced during 
the voyage, was the most tempestuous and 
savage within the memory of the oldest inhab- 
itant. The crew of the vessel had many rela- 
tives and friends at Palos. 

The latter thronged to the landing with 
tumultuous haste in order to satisfy themselves 
that the vessel was a reality and not an appar- 



1 04 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

ition. When they saw their old acquaintances 
were all safe, and the many things that they 
had brought back, attesting the success of the 
voyage, they shook the air with roars of enthu- 
siastic joy. The entire population accompan- 
ied Columbus and his men to a church ; thanks- 
givings were offered up for their safe return, 
and the bells joined giving voice to the general 
satisfaction. 

The admiral hurried to leave Palos to meet 
the monarchs, taking with him specimens of 
many kinds found in the land that he supposed 
was India. Several natives of the islands 
wearing their barbaric decorations of collars, 
bracelets and other ornaments of gold, rudely 
fashioned, accompanied him. He also exhib- 
ited considerable quantities of the same metal 
in dust or in crude masses. "Among other 
specimens was a lump of gold of sufficient mag- 
nitude, " sa57s Salazar de Mendoza, "to be fash- 
ioned into a vessel to contain the host, thus 
converting the first fruits of the new dominion 
to pious uses. " 

Columbus had in his collection many vege- 
table exotics, possessing aromatic and medic- 
inal virtues, many kinds of birds, whose variety 
of gaudy plumage gave a brilliant effect to 
the pageant. He had also some quadrupeds 



, CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 1 05 

quite unknown in Europe. Throngs impeded 
his progress at every step. 

At Seville, a large and active city, every 
point of advantage which could afford a glimpse 
of him, is described to have been crowded with 
spectators. When he reached Barcelona, he 
was met by the nobility and cavaliers con- 
nected with the court, who, with the authori- 
ties of the city met him at the gates and es- 
corted him to the presence of the royal couple. 

Ferdinand and Isabella were seated under a 
superb canopy of state awaiting his arrival. 
They rose to receive him, gave him their hands 
to salute, and caused him to be seated before 
them, which was a most astonishing mark of 
condescension, to an humble person of the 
grade of Columbus in the ceremonious court of 
Castile. 

Peter Martyr says : "It was indeed, the proud- 
est moment in the life of Columbus. He had 
fully established the proof of his long-contested 
theory in the face of argument, sophistry, sneer, 
skepticism, and contempt. He had achieved 
this, not by chance, but by calculations sup- 
ported through the most adverse circumstances, 
by consummate conduct. The honors paid 
him which had hitherto been reserved for rank, 
or fortune, or military success, purchased by the 



io6 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

blood and tears of thousands, were in his case, 
an homage to intellectual power successfully 
asserted in behalf of the noblest interests of 
humanity." 

All the contemporary and later writers are 
in the highest degree complimentary to the 
bearing of Columbus at this interview. Accord- 
ing to them his manner was sedate and digni- 
fied, but warmed by the glow of natural enthu- 
siasm. He enumerated the islands that he had 
visited, expatiated on the temperate character 
of the climate, and the capacity of the soil for 
every variety of production. He dwelt more 
at large on the precious metals to be found in 
these islands, which he inferred, less from the 
specimens actually obtained, than from the 
uniform testimony of the natives, to their 
abundance in the unexplored regions of the 
interior. 

Finally, he pointed out the wide field there 
was for Christian effort in the illumination of 
a race of men whose minds were not wedded 
to any system of idolatry, and who were pre- 
pared by their extreme simplicity for the recep- 
tion of a pure and uncorrupted doctrine. This 
last consideration touched Isabella's heart most 
sensibly. It was only about a year later when 
the priest and the musketeer were well on in 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 107 

their respective works of killing, or convert- 
ing, or both, the unbiased natives. 

The report of Columbus excited a sensation 
among the scientific men in all parts of Europe. 
The same men who had heard of his plans 
with entire indifference, now felicitated each 
other in being connected with an age in which 
had been developed so grand an event. 

Peter Martyr, who in his very extended let- 
ters, and whom as a contemporary of Columbus, 
had not even mentioned the preparations 
for the voyage of discovery, now lavished the 
most unbounded panegyric on the results ; 
which he contemplated with the eye of a phil- 
osopher, having far less reference to consider- 
ations of profit or policy, than to the prospect 
which they unfolded of enlarging the boundaries 
of knowledge. 

Many of the scholars of the day fell into the 
errors of Columbus to the effect that the land 
that he had discovered bordered on the eastern 
shores of Asia, and lay close to the vast and 
opulent region depicted in such vivid colors by 
Mandeville and Polo. On account of this mis- 
apprehension, the new region was now known 
as the West Indies, a name by which they are 
still recognized by the world and in the titles 
of the Spanish crown. 



io8 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

Efforts were at once begun to push the 
exploration of the new found regions. A board 
was established on the management of Indian 
affairs, and an office for the transaction of busi- 
ness was instituted at Seville, and a custom 
house placed under its direction at Cadiz. The 
commercial regulations forbade the new terri- 
tories free intercourse with foreign nations, and 
only Spanish subjects were allowed to deal 
with them. No one could trade or even visit 
the Indies without a license. Commodities of 
every description for the supply of the fleet 
were exempted from duty. The owners of all 
vessels in the ports of Andalusia, were required 
to hold them in readiness for the expedition, 
and authority was given to impress officers and 
men wherever necessary. Mechanics were en- 
listed for service in the new territory ; and in 
order to defray the heavy charges of which the 
Government in addition to the regular resources 
had recourse to a loan, and to these questrated 
property of the exiled Jews. 

At that period the unfortunate Jews had rea- 
son to congratulate themselves that the money 
wrung from them was used with the result that 
hundreds of thousands of Gentiles and heathen 
lost their property and their lives. 



CHAPTER XVII 

PREPARATIONS FOR A SECOND VOYAGE TO THE NEW 
WORLD 

Ample provisions were made for caring for 
the souls and bodies of the natives ; for the 
former were twelve priests, for the latter artil- 
lary, powder, muskets, lances, corselets and 
cross-bows, many of the soldiers preferring the 
last-named to the arquebus which was fired 
with a match lock and was so heavy as to 
require an iron rest. The pious portion of 
the outfit was equally well supplied with ammu- 
nition. Bernardo Boyle, a benedictine monk 
who was considered a man of great talent and 
sanctity, but who was in reality a politician, was 
selected as one of the religious element. The 
mission was provided with all necessary sup- 
plies. The queen supplied from her own chap- 
el the ornaments and vestments to be used 
in all solemn ceremonies. She desired that 

great care should be taken of their religious 
109 



1 1 o CHRISTOPHER "^COL UMB US 



instruction ; that they should be well treated, 
and insisted that Columbus should punish all 
Spaniards who should be guilty of injustice or 
outrage toward any of the natives. 

The six Indians brought over by Columbus 
were b^aptized with great ceremony, the royal 
family acting as sponsors. It was hoped that 
when they returned to India they would be 
valuable as missionaries. One of them remained 
in the royal household, but soon after died, 
when it was remarked by Herrera, the historian, 
that, according to what ought to be our pious 
belief, he was the first of his nation to enter 
heaven. If his pious belief were true, purga- 
tory and hades must have necessarily been of 
limitless dimensions to have accommodated all 
the pagans who had been damned. 

There was a long series of vexatious nego- 
tiations between the Spanish monarchy, and 
John II. of Portugal. As said before the latter 
prepared a large naval force whose ostensible 
purpose was i\frican discoveries in Africa, but 
whose real purpose was to take possession of 
the West Indies. Ferdinand was too shrewd 
a politician to be deceived by this action of the 
Portuguese king. He wrote two letters to the 
Portuguese monarch which he sent by a special 
messenger. These two letters were exactly 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS iii 

unlike. One of them returned thanks for the 
hospitality showed Columbus, and asked that 
the Portuguese fleet be prohibited from visiting 
the new country, the same as Spain had done 
in the case of the African possessions of the 
Portuguese. If the ambassador who carried 
the letters discovered that Portugal was going 
to dispatch the fleet to the new world, then 
he was to present the other letter which was a 
peremptory order not to send the armament as 
proposed. 

There was a long diplomatic wrangle with 
the result that Ferdinand who was much the 
shrewder of the two, managed to gain suffi- 
cient time for Columbus to conclude his pre- 
parations, and start on his second journey. 
Columbus was written to repeatedly to hurry. 
He, however, needed no spurring, and made 
all haste possible. He issued the requisition 
for ships and crews and soon succeeded in 
concentrating a fleet of seventeen vessels. 
Horses were shipped, cattle and domestic ani- 
mals of all kinds were put on board. 

A vast excitement prevailed in regard to this 
trip. Everybody wished to participate in it, 
many of the people of highest rank as well as of 
the common people thronging forward for ad- 
mission as emigrants to the new world. Las 



112 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

Casas relates some facts interesting in regard 
to a young cavalier. Don Alonso de Ojeda, 
who was one of the men who engaged in the 
expedition. He says : 

"He was celebrated for his remarkable per- 
sonal endowments and his daring spirit, and 
who distinguished himself among the early 
discoverers by many perilous expeditions. He 
was cousin-german to the venerable Father 
Alonzo de Ojeda, Inquisitor of Spain, and 
served in the wars against the Moors. He 
was of small stature, but vigorous make, well- 
proportioned, dark complexioned, of handsome 
animated countenance, and incredible strength 
and agility. Expert at all kinds of weapons, 
accomplished in all manly and war-like exer- 
cises, an admirable horseman, and a partisan 
soldier of the highest order. Bold of heart, 
free of spirit, open of hand ; fierce in fight, 
quick in brawl, but ready to forgive and prone 
to forget an injury ; he was for a long time the 
idol of the rash and roving youth who engaged 
in the early expedition to the new world, and 
was the hero of many wonderful tales. " 

Las Casas gives an anecdote of one of his 
exploits as follows : "Queen Isabella being in 
the tower of the Cathedral of Seville, Ojeda, 
to entertain her majesty, and to give proof of 



CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 113 

his courage and agility, mounted on a great 
beam which projected in the air twenty feet 
from the tower, at such an immense height 
from the ground that the people looked like 
dwarfs; and it was enough to make Ojeda him- 
self shudder to look down. Along this beam 
he walked briskly, and with as much confi- 
dence as if he had been pacing his chamber. 
When he arrived at the end, he stood on one 
leg, lifting the other into the air ; then turning 
nimbly round, he returned in the same way to 
the tower, unaffected by the giddy height, 
whence the least false step would have precip- 
itated him. and dashed him to pieces. He 
afterward stood with one foot on the beam, and 
the other against the wall of the building, and 
threw an orange to the summit of the tower, a 
proof of an immense muscular strength. Such 
was Alonzo de Ojeda, who soon became con- 
spicuous among the followers of Columbus, and 
who was always foremost in every enterprise 
of an adventurous nature ; he courted peril as 
if for the very love of danger, and seemed to 
fight more for the pleasure of fighting than for 
the distinction." 

It was decided at the start to limit the 
number of persons who were to go in the 
expedition to a thousand, but such was the 



1 1 4 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

pressure of volunteers who wished to enlist 
without pay, that the number reached twelve 
hundred. Others entered as stowaways so that 
finally there were at least fifteen hundred. 
Columbus was hastened in^ starting before the 
time that he had fixed on by the report that 
the Portuguese had sent out an armed ship 
from Madeira which was headed west. An 
account of this was sent to the sovereigns, and 
remonstrances sent to King John who said that 
the ship had gone without permission, and 
that he would send caravels to bring her back. 
The Spanish monarchs believed that this was 
simply a subterfuge, and Columbus was urged 
to start at once. 

On the 25th of September, 1493, his fleet 
was gathered in the Bay of Cadiz. It consisted 
of three large ships, and and fourteen caravels. 

All were full of animation and hope. The 
two sons of Columbus, Diego and Fernando, 
had come to witness his departure. Word was 
given to weigh anchor early in the morning 
and before sunrise the fleet was under way. 
They reached the Canaries on the first of Octo- 
ber. On the evening of the second of Novem- 
ber, Columbus discovered an island to which 
he gave the name of Dominica, from having 
discovered it on Sunday. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

GUADALOUPE AND THE CARIES 

The island which Columbus discovered was 
one of the group of Antilles, which he took 
possession of for Spain. Two days later, he 
sighted an island on which was a volcano and 
to which, with the purpose of complimenting 
a Catholic saint, he gave the name of Guada- 
loupe. 

He landed, and found a village of thirty 
houses from which the natives had fled in ter- 
ror at the sight of the fleet. The houses were 
different in form and construction from those 
seen on any other island, being more roomy 
and of a stronger construction. The furniture 
was also superior to that which the explorers 
had before seen ; the beds were hammocks of 
cotton netting. There was cotton cloth of a 
fair texture and an abundance of the raw mater- 
ial. They found bows and arrows, geese the 

same as the domestic fowls of Europe; and 

115 



1 16 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

on this island the explorers first saw the delic- 
ious pine-apple. 

Among other curiosities was a pan which 
had the appearance of being of iron. What 
much excited their wonder was the finding in 
one of the houses of the stern-post of a ship, 
whose origin excited speculation. It had pro- 
bably drifted to the island driven by the trades. 

Still another thing excited their horror and 
disgust as well as their astonishment. They 
found human bones whose flesh they concluded 
had been eaten. There were also skulls which 
were evidently used for household purposes. 
Those hideous remnants convinced the Span- 
iards that the island was occupied by canni- 
bals, or Caribs ; the next day, the conviction 
was confirmed. 

Sailing further along the coast, a boat went 
ashore and brought back a boy and several 
women, from whom Columbus learned that the 
island belonged to the predatory, man-eating 
Caribs. He also learned that they were in league 
w'ith another island, and went in their canoes, 
made from logs, a distance, sometimes as far 
as one hundred and fifty leagues to pillage on 
other islands, capturing men whom they ate, 
and women of whom they made servants, or 
worse. 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 117 

Columbus had a severe fright while at this 
infernal retreat of the murderous Caribs. One 
day he learned that a captain of one of the 
caravels, and eight men were missing ; they had 
gone ashore without leave of absence, and had 
disappeared in the woods. Parties to search 
for them scoured the country in every direc- 
tion ; guns were fired, trumpets blown, with 
no results. The searching parties discovered 
abundant evidence of man-eating practices. 
Human limbs hung from beams in the houses, 
being "cured" like hams in a country smoke- 
house. There was the still-bleeding head of 
a young man, parts of whose bod}" were roast- 
ing before a fire. 

Some days passed and the stragglers did not 
return ; and then Ojeda took a party of forty 
men, and started on a renewed search. He found 
.a fine region, with trees shedding aromatic 
odors; honey in hollow trees, and an abundance 
of fruit, but he did not find what he specifi- 
cally went for, the stragglers. The admiral 
gave them up and was to sail away when the 
wanderers suddenly appeared almost dead from 
fatigue. They had entered the f rest, and lost 
their bearings, and it was only by sheer chance 
that they reached the shore of which they fol- 
lowed till they found the fleet. The captain 



ii8 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

was put under arrest and the privates who fol- 
lowed him, were put on half rations. They 
learned from some women whom they brought 
back with them that the king and all the men 
were absent on a plundering expedition. 

On the loth of November, he resumed his 
course, passing many islands, and naming them 
as he went along. He sent a boat ashore at an 
island for water and named it Santa Cruz. Here 
he witnessed a specimen of Carib audacity and 
courage which was of a novel character. While 
in the village, a boat filled with natives came 
around a head-land near the ships ; two of the 
inmates of the canoe were women. They were 
so engaged in staring at the unexpected sight, 
that the boat at the village had time to run 
out and intercept the retreat of the natives. 

They immediately dropped their paddles, 
picked up their bows and arrows and began 
using them with astonishing rapidity and skill. 
The Spaniards ran against the canoe and upset 
it, but it made little difference to the natives. 
They used their bows in the water as rapidly 
as they did from the boat. The women took 
part in the fight, and wielded their bows with 
as much dexterity as the men. They were 
captured with great difficulty, and not till one 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 119 

of them had been run through with a lance, 
from which he soon after died. 

The natives were a frightful collection of 
semi-monsters, with long, coarse hair, and 
faces hideously painted. Just why they were 
attacked when they wished to escape, and had 
done the strangers no harm, it is difficult to 
explain. Columbus was very careful to avoid 
irritating the natives, but in this instance it 
seems a case of inexcusable shedding of blood. 
One Spaniard died from being hit by a pois- 
oned arrow launched by one of the women. 

The fleet sailed on and passed hundreds of 
islands, and finally anchored in front of what 
is now known as Porto Rico. Two days later 
he left the Caribbean sea, and sailed for His- 
paniola, which he reached on the 22d of No- 
vember. 

Hispaniola is the island now known as Hayti, 
which was, according to all accounts, a most 
charming island at the advent of the Spaniards. 
Here Columbus liberated a young Indian who 
had been taken to Spain, and converted. He 
was loaded with presents with which he was 
expected to dazzle his friends, and induce them 
to visit the ship. He left, promising to return 
soon, but was never seen or heard of again. 

Up to this period Columbus had experienced 



1 20 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

uninterrupted months of quiet, crowned with 
honors, and not a cloud in the sky of his life. 
It was while he was at anchor in a harbor of 
Hayti that the turning point in his life oc- 
curred. It was a date from which his descent 
was almost as rapid as had been his rise. 

Some sailors who were ashore found the bod- 
ies of a man and boy with a rope of grass around 
the neck of the former. They were so much de- 
composed that it was impossible to pronounce as 
to whether they were Spanish or native. The 
facts were reported to the admiral, who felt that 
they were an omen of evil. On the next day all 
doubt was dissipated by the finding of two other 
bodies near the same, one of which had a beard 
which proved incontestibly that the remains 
were those of a European. 

Filled with apprehension, Columbus imme- 
diately sailed for La Navidad, where, on his 
last voyage he had built a fort from the tim- 
bers of the Santa Maria, and in which he had 
left a garrison. On the evening of the 27th 
he reached a point opposite La Navidad. It 
was too dark to enter the harbor ; and coming 
to anchor he fired a couple of guns to notify 
the garrison of his presence. There was no 
response from the shore. 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 121 

About midnight a canoe containing a single 
Indian came along side, and was taken aboard. 
He said that many of the Spanish garrison had 
died of sickness; others had quarrelled and 
fought among themselves, and still others had 
removed to a distant part of the island where 
they had taken Indian wives. The Indian left 
promising to return in the morning and bring 
with him the cacique, Guancanagari, whom 
Columbus had met on his former trip, and who 
had then given every evidence of a warm friend- 
ship for Columbus. 

Morning came and the day advanced, and 
the cacique did not come. For a time it was 
thought that the Indian might have taken too 
much wine the preceding night, and that on the 
way to the shore, the canoe might have been 
upsetand the occupant drowned. When Colum- 
bus had visited the harbor before, the natives 
had come to see them by hundreds, the water was 
covered with canoes, and innumerable Indians 
were seen in the woods on the shore. Now there 
was not a boat nor an Indian in sight. After 
impatiently waiting until near night, Columbus 
sent some men ashore to look over the situation. 
The men found the fortress. It was a com- 
plete ruin. It had been beaten down and had 
the appearance of having been burned, and its 



122 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

contents stolen. Broken chests, spoiled pro- 
visions, and remnants of European garments 
were scattered around. Two or three Ind'ian-s 
were seen in the distance among the trees as if 
watching them, but disappeared when they 
noticed that they were seen. 

Columbus was very much afflicted by this 
intelligence, and the next day went to look over 
the scene in person. A search was made for 
dead bodies, but none could be found. No 
traces of the garrison were to be seen, but 
broken utensils and torn vestments were scat- 
tered about in the grass. It was hoped that 
some of the garrison might yet be alive, and 
the cannon were fired with the hope that any 
of the survivors who were within hearing might 
come out, but no one made an appearance. 

On looking for the village of the cacique, it 
was found to be a heap of burned ruins which 
showed that he had shared in the disaster of 
the garrison. 

Orders had been left with the officers of the 
garrison to bury all the treasure they could 
get hold of, or in case of an emergency throw it 
into the well of the fortress. Excavations were 
made all over the ruins and the well was cleared 
out. Nothing was found. He proceeded to 
inspect the adjacent shore in boats and some 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 123 

distance away he came to a village the inhab- 
itants of which had left taking some of their 
goods with them and hiding the remainder in 
the grass. In the houses were .European arti- 
cles which evidently had not been procured by 
barter, such as stockings, pieces of cloth and an 
anchor of the caravel which had been wrecked 
and a beautiful Moorish robe folded in the form 
in which it had been brought from Spain. 

The digging revealed no treasure, but it 
brought to light the bodies of eleven men buried 
in various places, and which were known by their 
clothing to be Europeans. The grass had 
grown on their graves, showing that they had 
been some time buried. 

Some Indians came in finally, and in time the 
facts of the fate of the garrison were to some ex- 
tent brought out. Concerning what occurred 
after Columbus had left Oviedo, he says : "With 
the exception of the commander Don Diego 
Arana, and one 01 two others, the men who 
were left behind were but little calculated to 
follow the precepts of so prudent a person, or 
to discharge the critical duties enjoined upon 
them. They were principally men of the low- 
est order, or mariners who knew not how to 
conduct themselves with restraint or sobriety 
on shore. No sooner had the admiral departed, 



1 24 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

than all his commands and counsels died away 
from their minds. Though a mere handful of 
men surrounded by savage tribes, and depend- 
ent upon their own prudence and good conduct, 
and upon the good will of the natives for their 
very existence, they soon began to indulge 
in the most wanton abuses. Some were prompt- 
ed by rapacious avarice, and sought to possess 
themselves, by all kinds of wrongful means, 
of the golden ornaments and other valuable 
property of the natives. Others were grossly 
sensual, and not content with the two or three 
wives allowed to each, by the cacique, seduced 
the wives and daughters of the Indians. 

"Fierce brawls ensued among them about 
their ill-gotten spoils, and the favors of the 
Indian women, and the natives beheld with 
astonishment the beings whom they had wor- 
shipped, as descended from the skies, aban- 
doned to the grossest earthty passions, and 
raging against each other with worse than 
brutal ferocity." 



CHAPTER XIX 

FURTHER FACTS IN REGARD TO LA NAVIDAD 

It was further ascertained that the garrison 
had not maintained military discipline. It was 
fruitless that Don Diego de Arana interfered ; 
all order, subordination and unity disappeared. 
Many left the fortress, and lived about the 
neighborhood ; each joined with some other 
one in a conspiracy to injure and spoil the 
others. Factions broke out, and assisted to 
complete the ruin ; two men who were lieuten- 
ants, left by Columbus to succeed the com- 
mander in case of accident, undertook to get 
an equal share in the authority and if possi- 
ble obtain control. Frequent affrays succeeded, 
in which some of the Spaniards were killed. 
The two lieutenants, having failed, left the fort 
with nine of their adherents, and a number of 
their women. 

They heard marvelous accounts of the mines 
of Cibao, and went to that district expecting 

185 



126 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

to secure much treasure. In going to this point, 
they went outside the region of the friendly 
territory of Guacanagari. The section where 
they went was in the interior of the island, a 
locality ruled by the famous Caonabo^ who 
was a Carib by birth, and had the fierceness 
and enterprise of his nation. He came as an 
adventurer to Hispaniola, and by his war-like 
exploits had put himself at the head of all the 
other caciques. 

He was the hero of the island when the ships 
of the white men reached the shore. He was 
sharp enough to understand that his conse- 
quence would decline before such intruders. 
The quarrels and excesses of those that re- 
mained, while they moved his detestation, in- 
spired him with increasing confidence. No 
sooner did the two lieutenants with their fol- 
lowing take refuge in his dominions, than he 
put them to death. 

He then formed a league with the cacique 
of Marien, and made a sudden attack upon 
the fortress. Descending with his warriors, 
and traversing great tracts of forests with pro- 
found secrecy, he arrived in the vicinity of the 
village without being discovered. But ten 
men were in the fortress with Arana, and these 
had no guard. The rest were quartered in 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 127 

houses in the neighborhood. In the dead of 
the night, when all were wrapped in sleep, 
Caonabo and his warriors burst upon the place 
with frightful yells, carried the fort, and sur- 
rounded and set fire to the houses in which the 
rest of the white men were asleep. Eight of 
the Spaniards fled to the sea side, pursued by 
the savages, and rushing into the waves were 
drowned. All the rest were massacred. 

Guacanagari and his subjects fought faith- 
fully in defence of their guests, but not being 
of a war-like character, were easily routed ; the 
cacique was wounded by the hand of Caonabo, 
and his village was burned to the ground. 

Such was the humiliating and bloody termi- 
nation of the first effort to establish civiliza- 
tion in the New World. On this point Irving 
says : 

"It presents in a diminutive compass an 
epitome of the gross vices which desjrade civ- 
ilization, and the grand political errors which 
sometimes subvert the mightiest empires. All 
law and order being relaxed by corruption and 
licentiousness, public good was sacrificed to 
private interests and passion, the community 
was convulsed by divers factions and dissen- 
tions, until the whole was shaken asunder by 
two aspiring demagogues, ambitious of the 



128 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

command of a petty fortress In the wilderness, 
and the supreme control of eight-and-thirty 
men." 

The cacique, Guacanagari, did not entirely 
escape suspicion of complicity in the destruc- 
tion of the fortress. One of the captains of 
the vessels was invited b}' the brother of the 
cacique to visit him. He went to the village 
where the cacique was confined, and found him 
in a hammock, surrounded by seven of his 
wives. Columbus also visited him, and to 
make an impression brought with him his offi- 
cers all in their armor. The cacique shed many 
tears as he related the destruction of La Navi- 
dad, and showed several of his subjects who 
had been wounded evidently by Indian weap- 
ons. The leg of the cacique had been, as he 
asserted, struck by a stone. A surgeon exam- 
ined it and found no sign of a wound. A good 
many of the Spaniards looked upon his lame- 
ness as made-up, and the story of the battle 
an invention to cover up his own duplicity. 

The priest, Father Boyle, more than any 
other believed in his guilt, and insisted that 
Columbus should make an example of the chief. 
This priest was of a vindictive spirit, and was 
possessed of a willingness to persecute and 
torture characteristic of a member of the Inqui- 



CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 1 29 

sition. Columbus thought that it would be 
impolitic on the strength of a mere suspicion, 
to disturb the relations between the natives 
and the Spaniards, and interfere with their 
operation on the island. The majority of his 
officers agreed with him, and thus the inquisi- 
torial designs of the friar* were balked. 

The cacique was invited to visit the ship. 
He had been astonished when he had seen the 
two caravels on the first trip, and now his 
amazement was vastly enlarged on seeing the 
enormous fleet, especially the admiral's ship, 
which was a very large vessel. The Carib 
prisoners were in one of the vessels in chains, 
and still he contemplated them with fear and 
shuddering. The fact that the Spaniards had 
invaded these terrible cannibals in their lair, 
and had taken them tiom their strongholds 
immeasurably increased his estimate of the 
tremendous powers of the white men. He was 
taken through the ship of the admiral. Every- 
thing was a novelty to him. The domestic 
fowls, cattle, sheep and swine, and other ani- 
mals which had been brought over were all 
marvels to him ; more especially was he as- 
tounded at the sight of the horses He had 
been accustomed to seeing only small animals, 
and was astonished at their size, their great" 



1 30 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

strength, and terrific appearance. He believed 
that all these objects must have been brought 
from Heaven from whence the white men must 
have come. 

A little romance occurred in connection with 
this visit of the cacique, which may bear nar- 
ration. On the ship were ten women who had 
been prisoners in the hands of the Caribs, and 
who had been rescued by the Spaniards. There 
was one of them who was evidently superior 
to all the others, and seemed to attract the 
special attention of the cacique. The next 
morning a messenger from the cacique came 
on board to find out how long before the ad- 
miral would sail. In the evening the brother 
of the cacique came to the ship on the pretense 
of wishing to sell a quantity of gold ; and when 
an opportunity offered he was noticed to talk 
privately with the female prisoners, particu- 
larly with Catalina, the one whose bearing had 
attracted the attention of Guanacagari. At mid- 
night when the crew were in their first sleep, 
Catalina woke her companions. The shore was 
distant three miles and the sea was ver}^ rough, 
but they let themselves down into the water, 
and swam for the shore. The watch heard them 
and an alarm was sounded. Chase was given, 
but such was the skill and strength of these 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 131 

women that they reached land. Four were re- 
captured on the beach but Catalina and the 
others made their escape in the forest. Next 
morning Columbus sent messengers to the 
cacique to demand the return of the fugitives. 
The residence of'the cacique was deserted, and 
not an Indian was to be seen. This desertion 
increased the doubts before entertained, and the 
cacique was generally stigmatized as a traitor 
to the white men, and the perfidious destroyer 
of the garrison. Thus ended one of the few 
romances involving love and women which 
occurred during the visits of Columbus to the 
New World. 



CHAPTER XX 

THE BUILDING OF A NEW CITY MALADIES 

The destruction of La Navidad rendered it 
necessary to make a beginning somewhere, and 
a short distance east of the site of the ruined 
fort the Spaniards landed and began the laying 
out of a city which they called Isabella. There 
was a spacious harbor, two rivers debouching 
at the point, and many other desirable features 
in the selected locality. One of the strongest 
inducements to locate at this point was the 
intelligence from the Indians, that the moun- 
tains of Cibao where the gold mines were sit- 
uated, were not far distant. The city went up 
rapidly. A church, a public store-house, and 
a residence for the admiral were erected, all of 
which were built of stone, while the other 
houses were built of wood or plaster, reeds, or 
whatever else could be made available. This 
was the first city of the New World, and which 
was very appropriately named after the queen 



CRHISTOPHER COLUMBUS 133 

who had given so much sympathy to the scheme 
of Columbus. 

All the animals were taken ashore, and for 
a time the colonists were very happy in escap- 
ing the confinement of the ships, and finding 
themselves on firm land and breathing free air 
in place of the stagnant exhalations of the inte- 
rior of the vessels. Sickness, however, soon 
broke out, especially among those who had 
suffered from sea sickness, and who had lived 
for a long time on damaged salt provisions and 
moldy biscuit. Before the houses could be 
built, they suffered from the exhalations of the 
hot, moist climate and soil, the miasmatic mists 
that overhung the rivers. They were sick at 
heart as well as body. Scarcely any of their 
romantic expectations had been realized. The 
gold regions of Cipango had not been discov- 
ered \ they had fancied a region of luxury, and an 
opportunity for adventure and chivalrous enter- 
prise. They found themselves confined to an 
island enveloped by dense forests, forced to 
work hard for a mere living, and only to secure 
comfort by the severest exertions. Gold did 
not lie in quantities where it could be picked 
up with no trouble, but was scarce, only to be 
obtained with the greatest difficulty. 

All these things produced a profound des- 



1 34 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

pendency, and added to the virulence of the 
physical diseases. Columbus, himself, was 
affected like the others, but his sense of respon- 
sibilit}^ sustained and supported him by forcing 
him to withstand prostration. He had tremen- 
dous labor whose execution was imperative ; 
he had the oversight and management of hi» 
fleet ; he had to exercise incessant vigilance, 
to smother embryotic dissatisfaction, which, if 
unchecked, might develop into open mutin}^ 

The attitude of the natives since the destruc- 
tion of La Navidad ; the menacing position of 
the hordes of hostile Caribs ; the failure to find 
the wealthy city of Cipango ; the comparatively 
small amount of gold thus far obtained, and 
the depressing effect the facts would have on 
public opinion at home ; the prevailing sick- 
ness, the scarcity of supplies, all of these and 
other weighty difficulties bore down on him, 
and constituted a burden which would have 
crushed a man with less powers of endurance. 
In his case, the necessity of active exertion 
produced a reaction against his weighty troubles 
and enabled him to defy them. 

His ships having been unloaded, it was neces- 
sary to send some of them home. Alarmed at 
the paucity of the returns which he would be 
obliged to make, he determined to make one 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 135 

more effort before the sailing of the ships to 
increase the interest of the reports which he 
had to send to Spain. He hit on what proved 
to be a fairly fortunate scheme. The Indians 
had constantly spoken of Cibao as the place 
where they obtained their supplies of gold. 
Perhaps this might be the long sought for 
Cipango. 

He organized an exploring party of the young- 
est and most courageous of his colony, and 
placed the company under command of the gal- 
lant knight Ojeda, whose exploits at Seville, and 
in the New World, have already been noticed. 
Orders were given for the party to visit Cibao, 
and learn its value. Ojeda started in 1494, 
greatly delighted with his mission, the more 
so as it carried him into the dominion of the 
cacique, Caonabo, who had the reputation of 
being a great warrior. The anticipation of a 
few hard blows filled his knightly soul with sat- 
isfaction. 

For two days he journeyed through a country 
wholly deserted by its inhabitants who had 
fled in terror before the advance of the Spanish 
party. The expedition then struck a moun- 
tain region up which they climbed along a nar- 
row path, with great difficulty. They crossed 
this range, and then descended to a plain in 



1 36 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

which were many Indian villages, and whose 
inhabitants treated the explorers with great 
cordiality. In six days more they reached 
another chain of mountains in which were the 
famed regions of Cibao. They entered this 
section without any serious obstacle on the 
part of the natives, the ferocious Caonabo being 
absent in some other portion of his kingdom. 

They found no Cipango, or any other cities 
populous and wealthy. Instead they found the 
regions in a state of nature, with naked sav- 
ages who received them with great kindness. 
They found, however, abundant evidences of 
auriferous deposits. Gold in quantities shone 
in the sands of the mountain streams, proving 
the existence of lodes in the mountains. Peter 
Martyr says that in some places they picked 
up large specimens of virgin ore from the beds 
of the torrents, and stones richly streaked and 
impregnated by it. "I saw" he says, "a mass 
of rude gold weighing nine ounces, which 
Ojeda had found in one of the brooks. " 

Ojeda immediately returned to the harbor 
where his specimens and his glowing reports 
did much to lessen the depression which afflict- 
ed the admiral. His feelings were further 
relieved by hearing good reports from an explor- 
ing party which had been sent in another direc- 



CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 137 

tion under the lead of a young cavalier named 
Gorvalan. As soon as possible after the return 
of the two expeditions, Columbus ordered twelve 
of his ships to return to Spain. 

He sent with the returning ships specimens 
of the gold found by Ojeda and Gorvalan, and 
their enthusiastic reports of the richness of 
the gold region — sending Gorvalan as a mes- 
senger. 

These ships carried large numbers of native 
products, and also the captives taken from the 
Caribs, who consisted of men, women and child- 
ren for the purpose of having them taught the 
Spanish language, and being instructed in the 
Christian faith. Thus far, the influence of 
the dozen, or more ecclesiastics who had accom- 
panied Columbus in his second voyage, was 
not made apparent. No conversion of the 
natives is spoken of up to this point. The 
single proselyte, after being converted and 
baptized in Spain came back with Columbus, 
and disappeared in the woods, as soon as land 
was reached, and never was heard of afterward. 
An attempt was made to influence the religious 
bias of the cacique. Guacanagari, whose sim- 
ple, kindly -nature, it was thought, made him 
an easy subject for conversion. 

An effort was made to create a reverence for 



1 38 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

Christian symbols, on his part, by Columbus, 
who offered to place about his neck a ribbon 
holding an imasfe of the Virgin. It was with 
the greatest reluctance that the cacique per- 
mitted the proffer to be carried into effect. 
He had been a spectator of the profligacy, the 
scandalous outrages, perpetrated by the garri- 
son of La Navidad and entertained, beyond 
question, a poor opinion of the Christianity 
which would permit such abominations. 

Columbus wrote to the sovereigns asking for 
further supplies, and made a proposal which 
proves him to have been a soulless, cruel bigot. 
His suggestion was that when the natives sent 
to Spain, had been converted, they should be 
sold for slaves to be paid for in live stock, 
which should be forwarded to his colony. For- 
tunately the queen, who did not hesitate to 
expatiate tens of thousands of Jews, and to 
sequestrate their property, was too sensitive 
to right and wrong to permit the carrying out 
of this outrageous proposition. The Carib 
prisoners were ordered to be converted on the 
usual terms, baptism, or the offices of the inqui- 
sition. 

The returning fleet sailed on February 2d, 
1494. The specimens of gold which were taken 
back to Spain ; the certainties of the discover- 



CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 1 39 

ies of rich gold-bearing regions, had the effect 
to secure favorable consideration for the report 
of Columbus. It obliterated the scandal and 
the massacre, the gross mismanagement con- 
nected with La Navidad, and elevated Spanish 
hopes to the very zenith. Next to the discov- 
ery of gold, the greatest satisfaction was exper- 
ienced over the project to build cities and extend 
civilization in this New World. 

Peter Martyr, who cared less for gold than 
the majority, grew enthusiastic over the pros- 
pects. "Columbus," he says, "has begun to 
build a city, as he has lately written to me, 
and sow our seeds, and propagate our animals! 
Who of us shall now speak of the wonder of 
Saturn, and Ceres, and Triptolemus, traveling 
about the earth to spread new inventions among 
mankind? Of the Phoenicians who built Tyne, 
or Sidon? Or of the Phoenicians whose rov- 
ing desires led them to migrate to foreign 
lands, to build new cities, and establish new 
communities?" 

It was reserved to other peoples, and other 
times to build cities and to introduce civiliza- 
tion into the New World. At this time of 
universal pride and self-congratulation, the 
New World had not even been discovered. 
All this rejoicing on the part of jubilant Spain 
was premature. 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE FAME OF COLUMBUS ON THE WANE 

Columbus, near the close of his second voy- 
age, with three caravels made a voyage west- 
ward, during which he discovered Jamaica. 
During his expedition he made up his mind 
that Cuba was a part of the Asiatic mainland, 
and forced his men to sign a paper declaring 
their own belief to the same purport. Con- 
cerning this act Navarrete says : 

"It is the frequent occurrence of such arro- 
gant and audacious acts on the part of Colum- 
bus which explains his sad failure as an admin- 
istrator, and seriously impairs the veneration 
in which the world would rejoice to hold him." 

Returning from his expedition to the Colony, 
he found that affairs were not in good shape. 
The people were very much discontented. 
Justin Winsor says: "He had not himself in- 
spired the confidence of the Governor, and his 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 141 

fame as an explorer by his misfortunes as a 
ruler. " 

The papal vicar accompanied by some of his 
colonists had seized ships and sailed for home. 
The natives outraged by the cruelties prac- 
ticed upon them, were attacking his fortified 
post. He learned from Fort St. Thomas, that 
the Indians of the neighborhood, were exhibit- 
ing hostility; and that Caonabo was making 
preparations to attack the fortress. The real 
cause of the grievance was that when Columbus 
left Fort St. Thomas, the garrison had com- 
mitted innumerable outrages on the natives 
by robbing them of their gold, and assaulting 
their women. 

While this general uneasiness and disaffec- 
tion prevailed, his brother Bartholomew arrived 
from Spain with three store-ships and later 
came four other ships, which, in due time, 
were sent back to carry samples of gold and 
a cargo of natives to be sold as slaves. These 
vessels had brought information of the charges 
made against the admiral at the Spanish court, 
and his brother Diego was sent back to answer 
the charges in the admiral's name. 

In March, 1495, Columbus led an armed force 
to terrify and subdue the native population. It 
is claimed, on excellent authority, that thia 



1 42 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

work was done with a cruelty which was beyond 
description. 

Meanwhile, in Spain, during this period, 
charges were made against Columbus so thick 
and fast as to greatly impair his standing with 
his sovereigns, Juan Aguado, a friend of 
Columbus, was sent to the New World to inves- 
tigate the condition of things, and who reached 
Isabella in October, taking with him Diego. 
Affairs were found not to be satisfactory, and 
after he had concluded his report, he went back 
to Spain in March, 1496. Columbus knowing 
the nature of the reports decided that it would 
be best for him to accompany Aguado, and 
make his explanation in person. They reached 
Cadiz in June. 

The monarchs received him kindly, and 
promised him further outfits. However, the 
matter was considerably delayed. For two 
years he was kept waiting, and it was not till 
the 30th of May, 1498, that Columbus, with six 
ships, started on his third voyage. In truth, 
the enthusiasm and excitement among the peo- 
ple in regard to the discoveries in the New 
World were dying out. The reports from the 
new country were not in the least corroborative 
of the flaming narrations of Marco Polo, and 
the new found world was thought to be very 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 143 

poor India after all. Such was the general 
impression : Columbus alone was not discour- 
aged and the public treasury was opened for 
another voyage. 

On this voyage, he discovered Trinidad July 
31st, which he named from its three peaks or 
from the Holy Trinity; and according to some 
accounts; struck the northern coast of South 
America, and skirted what was later known as 
the pearl coast. This statement that he touched 
the mainland is disputed, or at least that he 
was the first. He may have done so, but it is 
claimed that it before had been visited hy Ves- 
puscius. 

Columbus reached the southern coast of Hayti 
on the 30th of August, where his colonists had 
built a fort and founded the town of Santo 
Domingo. His brother Bartholomew, although 
an energetic ruler, had not prevented a revolt, 
which had been headed by Roldan. Colum- 
bus found the insurgents still in arms, but was 
able to quiet them, and succeeded in attaching 
Roldan warmly to his interest. 

During the absence of Columbus from Spain, 
he left but few friends to care for his reputa- 
tion ; and to placate his enemies a new commis- 
soner was sent over with plenary powers, even 
to suspend Columbus from command if neces- 



1 44 CHRISTOPHER COL UiMB US 

sary. The person thus sent was Francisco de 
Bobadilla, who reached Santo Domingo August 
23d, 1500. Diego was in command in the absence 
of Columbus, and refused to pay any attention 
to the orders of the commissioner until the 
return of Columbus ; whereupon Bobadilla took 
violent possession of the crown property, and of 
the residence of Columbus, and when the latter 
returned, he and Diego were arrested and put 
in irons. 

He was placed on a ship, the captain of 
which offered to remove the manacles ; but Co- 
lumbus refused to have them taken off, being 
determined to land in Spain bound as he was. 
And his resolution was persevered in. This 
degradation was greatly to his advantage. The 
king and queen and the people were shocked at 
the spectacle, and endeavored to make amends 
by extending to him renewed support. He 
proposed a new voyage and getting the royal 
endorsement, he was supplied with four vessels, 
and sailed May gth, 1502, reaching Santo Do- 
mingo June 29th. 

Nicholas de Ovando had taken the place of 
Bobadilla, whose administration for a year and 
a half had been unfortunate, and the fleet which 
had brought Columbus lay in front of the har- 
bor waiting to receive Bobadilla for the return 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 145 

voyage, Columbus had been instructed to avoid 
Hispaniola, bnt one of the vessels was leaking 
badly, and he sent a boat ashore to ask per- 
mission to enter the harbor. Permission was 
refused, although a storm was pending. He 
secured the best shelter he could and rode out 
the gale. The ships on which were Bobadilla 
and Roldan with their ill-gotten gains were 
wrecked, and these enemies of Columbus were 
drowned.* 

The admiral found a small harbor where he 
could make his repairs, and then, July 14, 
sailed westward to find as he supposed, the 
richer portions of India, in exchange for the 
barbarous outlying districts which others had 
appropriated for themselves. He began to 
find more intelligence in the natives of the 
islands which he visited, than had been exhib- 
ited by those of Cuba, and received intimations 
of land still further west where copper and gold 
were in abundance. 

An old Indian made a rough map of the main 
shore. Columbus took him on board, and pro- 
ceeding onward, landing was made August 14th 
on the coast of Honduras. And three days 
later he landed fifteen leagues further east and 
took possession of the country in the name of 

*Narrative and Critical History of America. 
10 



146 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

Spain. Columbus was lying ill in his bed, 
placed on deck ; they still sailed south till they 
reached the coast of Costa Rica. In this region 
Columbus dallied, not suspecting how thin the 
strip of country was that separated him from 
the great ocean. 



CHAPTER XXII 

TROUBLES WITH THE NATIVES OJEDA AND CAO- 

NABO 

The troubles alluded to as occurring at the 
Fort St. Thomas, demand a special notice on 
account of their bearing on the strained rela- 
tions of the Spaniards and the natives. When 
Columbus left the fort he placed in command a 
man named Margarite, who organized an expe- 
dition for the purpose of plundering the natives, 
leaving the famous cavalier, Ojeda, in charge 
of the fort. He took with him the largest 
portion of the garrison, and then descended 
into the rich valley of the Vega. 

Margarite at once gave loose reins to his 
avarice, and sensuality. The Indians received 
them, at first, with unbounded hospitality, sup- 
plying the Spanish force with provisions to 
the best of their ability. But Margarite had 
no sense of gratitude or decency. When the 

scant stores of the natives grew scanter, he 

147 



148 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

wrested supplies from them with acts of vio- 
lence. His greed for gold led him to resort to 
bold, open robbery, in which he enacted the 
role of a highwayman, a footpad, and a burglar. 
Nor was this all of his iniquitous outrages; 
not satisfied with impoverishing the natives by 
forcibly wrenching from them their supplies of 
food, and wringing from them their gold orna- 
ments by force and torture, he outraged their 
domestic relations by sacrificing the women to 
his lusts. 

Revolts on the parts of the natives broke out 
in various portions of the island. The Span- 
iards defied all order and discipline, broke up 
into small bands, and scattered wherever there 
was booty to be found, or women to be outraged. 
So long as the Spaniards moved in a single 
body, the Indians dared not resist them ; but 
when they began to scatter, the natives gained 
courage, and attacked them in detail. A caci- 
que, named Guatiguana, slaughtered ten Span- 
iards who had forced themselves, on his village 
and offended his people by their licentiousness. 

The same cacique followed up this act by 
setting fire to a house in which forty-six soldiers 
were quartered. He surrounded a small fort 
which had lately been erected on the Vega, 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 149 

and prevented the garrison from obtaining sup- 
plies. 

The deadliest enemy of the hated Spaniard 
was the Carib cacique, Caonaba, who has before 
been referred to. His dominions were in the 
vicinity of Fort St. Thomas, and Margarite 
took away so large a portion of the garrison, 
he thought the opportunity a good one to 
attack the fort, now defended by only a limited 
force. 

Ojeda was in command: He had been in 
the war with the Moors, and was a skilled sol- 
dier. What he lacked in men he made up in 
daring audacity, dash and cunning. 

Herrera thus speaks of him at this period : 
"He was versed in all kinds of feints, strata- 
gems, lurking ambuscades and wild assaults. 
No man was, therefore, better fitted to cope 
with Indian warriors. He had a headlong cour- 
age, arising partly from natural heat and vio- 
lence in his disposition and in a great measure 
from religious superstition. 

"He had been engaged in wars with Moors 
and Indians, in public battles, and private 
combats, in fights, feuds, and encounters of 
all kinds, to which he had been prompted by 
a rash and fiery spirit, and a love of adventure ; 
yet he never had been wounded nor lost a drop 



I50 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

of blood. He began to doubt whether any 
weapon had power to harm him, and to con- 
sider himself under the especial protection of 
the Holy Virgin. 

"As a kind of religious talisman, he had a 
small Flemish painting of the Virgin, given 
him by his patron, Fonesca, bishop of Rada- 
joz. This he constantly carried with him in 
city, camp, or field, making it the object of 
frequent orisonsand invocations. In garrison 
or in encampment, it was suspended in his 
tent \ in his rough expeditions in the wilder- 
ness, he carried it in his knapsack, and when- 
ever the time permitted, he would take it out, 
fix it on a tree, and address his prayers to this 
military patroness. 

"In a word, he swore by the Virgin, he in- 
voked the Virgin whether in brawl or battle, 
and under the favor of the Virgin he was ready 
for any enterprise or adventure. Such was 
Alonzo de Ojeda ; bigoted in his devotion, reck- 
less in his life, fearless in his spirit, like many 
of the roving Spanish cavaliers of that day. 
Though small in stature, he was a prodigy in 
strength and prowess ; and the chroniclers of 
the early discoveries relate marvels of his valor 
and exploits." 

This is a graphic and pleasing picture of one 



CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 151 

of the most famous of the Spanish hidalgos 
who accompanied Columbus in his explorations. 

Caonabo, barring the tincture of superstition, 
was among the natives something of the same 
daring, reckless, audacious kind of warrior that 
was Ojeda among the Spaniards. With the 
same discipline, experience, arms, and other 
military appliances, he would have proven 
himself the equal in warlike feats of the other. 

Having carefully examined Fort St. Thomas, 
Caonabo gathered a formidable force, amounting 
in all to ten thousand men who were armed 
with clubs, bows and arrows, and firehardened 
lanceSj and marched to pit these primitive 
weapons and the naked bodies of his men against 
the cross-bows, the cannon, the arquebuses, 
and the steel corselets of the Spaniards. Find- 
ing the garrison all within the walls of the 
fort, which he could not penetrate, he distrib- 
uted his forces about the works with a view of 
starving the inmates into surrender. 

He did succeed in reducing them to great 
straitSj and would have captured the place had 
it not been for the constant sallies led by Ojeda, 
in which the Indians were slaughtered in great 
numbers, he was always in the van, went where 
the Indians were thickest, and never received 
a wound. The Indians became discouraged, 



152 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

deserted in large numbers, and then, Caonaba, 
at the very time when the garrison was suffering 
from famine, withdrew his army. 

Caonaba afterward tried to form a league of 
the caciques of the island for the purpose of 
exterminating the Spaniards. But three others 
consented to take part in the plot. One who 
steadfastly refused, was the cacique, Guacan- 
gari, the one who was accused by the friar, 
Boyle, of having assisted in the destruction of 
La Navidad, thus conclusively demonstrating 
that the suspicion against him was without foun- 
dation. He cared for one hundred Spaniards, 
during the period when Caonaba was trying to 
form a hostile league, and thereby drew on 
him the vengeance of the Carib chief, and his 
brother-in-law, Behechio, who repeatedly raided 
Guacanagari's territories, killing and robbing. 
Among their victims was one of the cacique's 
wives who was killed by Behechio, while 
Caonaba carried off another one of them as a 
prisoner. 

Still the cacique never varied in his loyalty 
to the Spaniards. He was the alleged traitor 
to whom Inquisitor Boyle wished to apply the 
thumb-screw and the fagot. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

LAST DAYS OF COLUMBUS IN THE NEW WORLD — 
RETURNS TO SPAIN 

After having so narrowly failed in the dis- 
covery of the mainland, Columbus followed 
the coast of Costa Rica until he reached Porto 
Bello, where he found houses and orchards. 
Along the gulf side of the Panama isthmus he 
encountered storms that forced him into vari- 
ous harbors, in all of which he saw regions of 
great fertility and richness, A long series of 
explorations were made, when finally Colum- 
bus returned to Jamaica. His ships were 
weather-beaten and worm-eaten. He abandoned 
one of them, a caravel at Porto Bello. and 
at Jamaica beached two others. A year of dis- 
appointment, grief and want followed, during 
which he clung to his wrecked vessels. Ovando 
at Hispaniola, heard of his straits, but only 
tardily and scantily relieved him. 

Some ships were at last sent him by the 

153 



1 54 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

admiraPs agent at Santo Domingo, and brought 
him and his companions to that place, where 
Ovando lodged and cared for him until Colum- 
bus departed for Spain September 12th, 1504. 
The arrival of the two vessels at Jamaica which 
were to take him to Santo Domingo, made an 
immense difference in his situation. He had 
been living in a wreck for over a year, and had 
suffered indescribable hardships, including im- 
paired health and the hatred and persecution 
of the officials at Jamaica. 

As he approached Santo Domingo, Colum- 
bus became oppressed by an apprehension that 
he would not be well received by the people. 
The settlement had been the very centre of 
hatred and opposition to him at a time when 
he was at the very height of his power; and 
as was said by a Spanish writer : "he had been 
hurried from it in ignominious chains, amidst 
the shouts and taunts of the triumphant rabble ; 
he had been excluded from its harbor when, 
as commander of a squadron, he craved shelter 
from an impending tempest ; but now that he 
arrived in its waters, a broken-down and ship- 
wrecked man, all past hostility was over-pow- 
ered by the popular sense of his late disasters. 
There was a momentary burst of enthusiasm in 
his favor; what had been denied to his merits 



CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 1 55 

was gained by his misfortunes ; and even the 
envious, appeased by his present reverses, 
seemed to forgive him for having once been so 
triumphant." 

Although Ovando treated him with apparent 
good-feeling, the admiral, according to his son, 
always believed that his fidelity was assumed. 
Hence the sojourn of Columbus at Santo Do- 
mingo afforded him but little satisfaction. In 
a letter to his son he speaks about his grief at 
the desolation of the island by the oppressive 
treatment of the natives, and the horrible mas- 
sacre that had been perpetrated by Ovando and 
his agents. He had fondly hoped, he says, at 
one time, to render the natives civilized, indus- 
trious, and tributary subjects to the crown, and 
to derive from their well-regulated labor, a 
great and steady revenue. 

How different had been the event! The five 
great tribes that had peopled the mountains and 
valleys at the time of the discovery, and rendered 
by their mingled towns and villages, and tracts 
of cultivation, the rich levels of the Vega so 
many "painted gardens, "had almost all passed 
away, and the native princes had perished 
chiefly by violence or ignominious death. 

Columbus complained in subsequent letters 
to the sovereigns that the public business wa? 



156 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

badly managed, that the ore collected lay un- 
guarded in large quantities in houses slightly 
built and thatched, inviting depredation; that 
Ovando was unpopular, the people were disso- 
lute, and the property of the crown and the 
security of the island in continual risk of mutiny 
and sedition. 

In later letters he accuses Ovando of having 
neglected, if not sacrificed, his interests during 
his long absence, and of having impeded those 
who had been appointed to attend to his con- 
cerns. All these things induced Columbus to 
desire to hasten his departure from the island. 
That Columbus had the sympathy of Isabella 
in the misunderstanding between the admiral 
and Ovanda, is shown by letters in which she 
writes to Ovando on the 27th of November, 1503, 
expressly commanding him to observe the capit- 
ulations granted to Columbus ; to respect his 
agents and to facilitate, instead of obstructing 
his concerns. These letters show the personal 
interest taken by Isabella in the affairs of Co- 
lumbus during his absence. 

Before he returned to Spain, the ship in 
which he had been brought from Jamaica was 
repaired and fitted out, and in this Columbus 
embarked with his son and servants. His great 
liberality was shown in the fact that the necessi- 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 157 

ties of many of his late crew who were in poverty 
at Santo Domingo, were relieved from his own 
purse, and that he advanced the necessary funds 
to pay the passage of those who wished to 
return to Spain. From the day of his sailing 
for Spain, he was beaten by tempests during 
almost every hour of his passage, until they 
reached the Spanish coast. The mainmast was 
sprung in four places during one storm, and 
although Columbus was confined to his bed at 
the time, by his advice the damage was repaired ; 
the mast was shortened and fortified by wood 
taken from the cabins, and the whole was well 
secured by cords. They were still more dam- 
aged in another tempest, in which the foremast 
was sprung. In this crippled state they had 
to traverse seven hundred leagues of stormy 
ocean. 

"Fortune continued to persecute Columbus 
to the end 'of this, his last and most disastrous 
expedition," says Las Casas. "For several 
weeks he was tempest-tossed— suffering at the 
same time the most excruciating pains from 
his malady— until, on the 7th day of November, 
his crazy and shattered bark anchored in the 
harbor of San Lucar. From here he had him- 
self conveyed to Seville, where he hoped to 
enjoy repose of mind and body, and to recruit 



158 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

his health after such a long series of fatigues, 
anxieties, and hardships." 

Weakness and sickness kept him in his bed 
at Seville, the place that he had looked for- 
ward to as a haven of rest. Anxiety and care 
hung to him by land as well as by sea. A dif- 
ference in the places which he occupied simply 
varied the nature of his distress. He found all 
his affairs in confusion. His rents and dues 
had not been properly collected at Santo Do- 
mingo, remaining in the hands of Ovando. He 
pleaded that a letter might be written by the 
king commanding the payment of the arrears 
without delay ; for his agents would not venture 
to even speak to Ovando on the subject. 

"I have much vexation from the governor," 
says he in a letter to his son Diego. "All tell 
me that I have there eleven or twelve thousand 
castillanos ; and I have not received a quarter. 
I know well, that, since my departure he must 
have received upward of five thousand castil- 
lanos." 

The rank of Columbus involved large expen- 
ditures, and he was supposed to be the possessor 
of inexhaustible wealth, which was not true, 
as his income was precarious and scanty. His 
last voyage had exhausted his accumulations, 
and involved him in debt. All the money he 



CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 159 

had been able to collect in Hispaniola, to the 
amount of twelve hundred castillanos, had been 
expended in bringing home members of his 
crew who were in distress. At this period he 
was absolutely in want. He urges his son Diego 
to economize until he can secure the payment 
of his arrears. 

"I received nothing of the revenue due to 
me," says he in one letter to his son ; "I live 
by borrowing. Little have I profited by twenty 
years of service, with such toils and perils ; 
since at present I do not own a roof in Spain. 
If I desire to eat or sleep, I have no resort but 
an inn; and for the most times, have not the 
wherewithal to pay my bill." 



CHAPTER XXIV 

CLOSING DAYS OF COLUMBUS — DEATH OF ISABELLA 

The closing days of Columbus grew more 
and more distressing as the end of his life ap- 
proached. Despite the fact that he suffered 
acutely from a complication of diseases, includ- 
ing the gout, and from an intense mental strain, 
he did not forget the wrongs inflicted upon 
others, especially his crew, and did not cease 
to urge on the sovereigns to pay them their 
arrears. "They are poor," said he, "as it is 
now nearly three years since they left their 
homes. They have endured infinite toils and 
perils, and they bring in valuable tidings for 
which their majesties ought to give thanks to 
God and rejoice," 

It speaks well for his innate generosity for 
these poor sailors, for many of those whom he 
was soliciting justice, had been his enemies. 
While engaged in this effort to secure the back 
payments of the crews, he gave a great deal of 

i6o 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS i6i 

attention to his own case. So far as the record 
shows he laid very little stress upon pecuniary 
remuneration for himself. What he most sought 
for in this direction, was the restoration of his 
dignities which he regarded as the evidences of 
his great achievements. In this direction he 
had been constantly and scandalously deceived 
by Ferdinand, who had promised him that his 
offices and dignities should be restored to him. 
He felt, in a strong degree, that so long as they 
were withheld from him, it was a stain upon his 
reputation. 

"Had he not," says a writer, "been proudly 
impatient on the subject, he would have belied 
the loftiest part of his character; for he who 
can be indifferent to the wreath of triumph, is 
deficient in the noble ambition which incites 
to glorious deeds." 

The intelligence which he received from the 
Court was irritating and unsatisfactory. He 
knew that there was powerful opposition against 
him, which was always prepared to make the 
worst of the situation so far as it applied to 
him ; and he knew that it was a matter of the 
greatest importance that he should attend the 
Court in person to defend his own case. He 
made an attempt to reach their majesties, but 
his illness and the inclemency of winter effec- 



1 62 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

tively prevented him from making the journey. 

He was very much worried at the outbreaks 
in Jamaica, which might be construed by those 
who hated him into charges against his charac- 
ter. Diego Menzes and Alonzo Sanchez de 
Carvajal and Geronimo, all active friends of 
Columbus, were at Court. He wrote to his 
son Diego to call upon them for their good 
offices. "I have served their majesties," said 
he, "with as much zeal and diligence as if it 
had been to gain Paradise ; and if I have failed 
in anything, it has been because my knowledge 
and powers went no further." 

With a very slight difference, the case cf 
Columbus in his humiliation and the nelgect 
which characterized the treatment of him sug- 
gests to a considerable extent an almost sim- 
ilar condition presented b}^ Cardinal Woolsey. 
The one was appealing to Ferdinand, the other 
to Henry VHI. and both found only an atrocious 
ingratitude for lives devoted to the service of 
the very men who were engaged in crushing 
them. 

It is very difficult for the imagination to 
conceive the broad difference between the Co- 
lumbus of 1492, and the same character in 
1504. The one was the favorite of the sover- 
eigns, was permitted to sit in their presence, 



CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 163 

was inundated with honors, titles, and dignity; 
was admired by scientific men of all Europe, 
and for the time being probably stood higher 
than any other man in civilization in the esteem 
of the people. The latter was a weak, wretched 
invalid ; the former was a tall, robust, virile 
man. The one could command his own entrance 
into Court in the presence of royalty ; the other 
was met by contemptible subterfuges, and was 
tabooed as if he had been a poisonous reptile. 
His anxiety to get to Court became every day 
more intense. He was carried to the door in 
a litter, but his health was feeble and the win- 
ter so bleak and trying, that he was obliged to 
abandon the effort. His ability to write letters 
to the sovereigns began to lessen, for he could 
only write at night, as at other times, his malady 
deprived him of the use of his hands. Bad 
news came incessantly from the Court ; the 
machinations of his foes were becoming stronger 
and stronger, and Ferdinand treated his appli- 
cations with absolute indifference, while the 
queen was prostrated with a fatal illness. Re- 
pelled by Ferdinand, Columbus placed his sole 
reliance for justice in Queen Isabella. "May 
it please the Holy Trinity," say he, "to restore 
our sovereign queen to health ; for by her will 



1 64 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

everything be adjusted which is now in confu- 
sion." 

It is sad to be obliged to state that while 
Columbus was writing this pathetic supplication 
for the recovery of his benefactress, she was 
lying a corpse in tne royal palace. 

The health of Isabella had been injured by 
repeated domestic afflictions. She lost by death 
her only son, Prince Juan, and her daughter 
and warmest friend, the Princess Isabella; and 
last, death visited her a third time and took 
away Prince Miguel, who was the prospective 
heir of the throne. These burdens were not 
apparently sufficient, for she was constantl}^ 
oppressed by the conviction of the weakness of 
intellect of her daughter Juana, and the domes- 
tic unhappiness of that princess with her hus- 
band, Archduke Philip. 

It was said by a writer that, "the desolation 
which walks through palaces does not permit the 
familiar sympathies and sweet consolation which 
alleviate the sorrows of common life. Isabella 
pined in state, amidst the obsequious homages 
of the Court, surrounded by the trophies of a 
glorious and successful reign, and placed at the 
summit of earthly grandeur. A deep and incur- 
able melancholy settled upon her, which under- 
minded her constitution, and gave a fatal acute- 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 165 

ness to her bodily maladies. She died Nov. 26th, 
1504, at Medina del Campo, in the fifty-fourth 
year of her age, after an illness of four months. 

Long beiore her eyes closed on the world she 
had ceased to regard its allurements and van- 
ities. 

"Let my body," she said in her will, "be 
interred in the monastery of San Francisco, 
which is in the Alhambra of the city of Gre- 
nada, in a low sepulchre, without any monu- 
ment except a plain stone, with the inscription 
cut on it. But I desire and command that, if 
the king, my lord, should choose his sepulchre 
in any church or monastery, in any other part 
of these my kingdoms, my body may be trans- 
ported thither, and buried beside the body of 
his highness ; so that the union that we have 
enjoyed while living, and which, with the 
mercy of God, we hope our souls will experi- 
ence in Heaven, may be repeated by our bodies 
in the earth." 

The intelligence of the death of Isabella 
reached Columbus when he was writing the 
letter to his son Diego. "A memorial," he 
writes in the postscript, "for thee, my dear 
son Diego, of what is at present to be done. 
The principal thing is to commend affection- 
ately and with great devotion, the soul of the 



i66 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

queen, our sovereign, to God. Her life was 
always Catholic and holy, and prompt to all 
things in the holy service ; for this reason we 
may rest assured that she is received into His 
glory, and beyond the care of this rough and 
weary world. The next thing is to watch and 
labor in all matters for the service of our sov- 
ereign, the king, and to alleviate his grief. His 
majesty is the head of Christendom. Remem- 
ber the proverb which says : 'When the head 
suffers all the members suffer.' Therefore all 
good Christians should pray for his health and 
long life, and we who are in his employ, ought 
more than others to do this with all study and 
diligence, " 



CHAPTER XXV 

COLUMBUS SEES FERDINAND — TREATED WITH COLD 
CONTEMPT 

The death of Isabella carried into the grave 
the prospects of Columbus. He did not, it is 
true, yield at once, and although despairing, 
and sunken into depths of despondency, he 
determined, as a last resort, to make an appeal 
to Ferdinand. During the winter following 
the death of the queen, he was confined by his 
malady to his bed, and once more resorted to 
letter-writing for the purpose of securing redress 
from the crown. 

It was at this period that Columbus employed 
as one of his messengers to the Court, a char- 
acter whose fame is but little less brilliant than 
that which enveloped Columbus ; in fact, there 
are those who give him a higher place. It was 
Amerigo Vespucci. There is no necessity for 

a discussion in this work of the claims of this 

167 



1 68 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

person for an alleged priority in the discovery 
of the continent. For four hundred years the 
problem has been discussed without any settled 
conclusion, and there is no possible reason 
why an equal number of years of similar argu- 
ment will dispose of the knotty question. 

When Columbus made his final effort to get 
a hearing from Ferdinand, he was supported 
in his efforts by Diego de Deza, the bishop of 
Palencia, who was the friar who had advocated 
the adoption of his plans when they were pre- 
sented before the Junta of Salamanca. Colum- 
bus sent his son Diego to learn from the bishop 
whether or not the queen had made a will. 

"Two things," he said, "require particular 
attention. Ascertain whether the queen who 
is now with God, has said anything concerning 
me in her testament ; and stimulate the bishop 
of Palencia, he who was the cause that their 
highnesses obtained possession of the Indies, 
who induced me to remain in Castile when I was 
on the road to leave it. If the bishop of Palen- 
cia has arrived, or should arrive, tell him how 
much I have been gratified by his prosperity, 
and that if I come, I shall lodge with his grace, 
even though he should not invite me, for we 
must return to our ancient, fraternal affecticn. " 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 169 

All the appeals of Columbus were listened 
to with contemptuous indifference, or not at all. 
In no particulars to the affairs, condition, or 
mangement of officers of the New World was he 
given any information. He was totally ignored. 
He endeavored in various matters to vary cer- 
tain official appointments, or to protest against 
some contemplated action which, from his ex- 
perience in Indian complications, he knew to 
be wrong. 

After a considerable period had elapsed, and 
Columbus was slowly dying of chagrin and 
humiliation, by a royal order, issued probably at 
the solicitation of the Bishop of Placentia, 
he was given permission to come to the Court, 
which was then being held at Segovia. As a 
concession to his age and illness, permission 
was issued from the Court, to allow him to 
travel on a mule, a practice then forbidden, as 
it had the effect to interfere with the rearing of 
saddle-horses. 

It was not till May, 1505, that he was able 
to make the journey. The facts just presented 
concerning his stay at Seville, after the return 
from his fourth and last voyage, contradict the 
statement commonly made that he was at that 
place recuperating by a quiet rest. And he, 
who, a few years ago had entered Barcelona 



I70 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

in triumph, now poor, broken down,humiliated, 
despairing, entered Segovia without the greet- 
ing of a single friend in the royal crowd. 

When he appeared in Court, he received none 
of the attention to which his long and arduous 
services were entitled. The king professed to 
feel kindly toward him ; but unmistakably with- 
out any sincerity. Columbus related to the 
king a narrative of his last voyage, the new 
lands he had explored; but his listener was 
cold and indifferent. In regard to this inter- 
view, Las Casas said : 

"I do not know what caused this dislike, and 
this lack of princely countenance of the king 
toward one who had rendered him such prom- 
inent benefits; unless that his mind was swayed 
by the false testimony which had been brought 
against the admiral ; of which I have been able 
to learn something from persons much in favor 
of the sovereigns." 

Columbus offered to submit the difference 
between them to his friend, the arch-bishop of 
Seville, Don Diego de Deza, when the king 
suggested arbitration. The king consented, but 
presented issues which he knew Columbus 
would not accept, as for instance, the question 
of restoring him to the rank of viceroy which the 
admiral declined to discuss, as he believed that 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 171 

the dignity had been conferred on him in a 
manner that made of it an inalienable right. 
All that he insisted on was that his titles should 
be respected as the result of a solemn agree- 
ment in the nature of a treaty. Months were 
expended in an effort to move the king, but 
to no avail, "as far as actions went," says Las 
Casas, "the king not merely showed him no 
signs of favor, but, on the contrary, discoun- 
tenanced hia-i as much as possible; yet he was 
never wanting in complimentary expressions. 

A long time passed, and Columbus continued 
to receive smooth words from the king, but 
nothing more substantial. His claims were 
finally referred to a tribunal called "The coun- 
cil of the discharges of the conscience of the 
king and the deceased queen." Two sessions 
were held, but nothing came of it for the rea- 
son that those composing it knew too well the 
wishes of Ferdinand. 

"It was believed," says Las Casas, "that if 
the king could have done so with a safe con- 
science, and without detriment to his fame, he 
would have respected few or none of the priv- 
ileges which he and the queen had conceded to 
the admiral, and which had so justly been mer- 
ited." 

Columbus continued to hope against hope, 



172 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

and flattered himself with the belief that when 
the daughter of the queen, Juana, wife of the 
king, Philip of Flanders was to take the 
place of her mother as queen of Castile, the 
breach might be healed. Nothing came from 
the presence of the new queen. The admiral 
then tried to secure the succession of his titles 
for his son, Diego ; and this, like all his efforts, 
since his return from his last voyage, was a 
total failure. 

Columbus became discouraged. He was suf- 
fering from a most painful and fatal illness, and 
at last ceased his stubborn contest. He wrote 
to Diego de Deza, in which communication he 
gave utterance to his despair. He said: "It 
appears to me that his Majesty objects to ful- 
fill that, which he, with the queen, promised 
me by word and seal. For me to contend with 
the contrary would be to contend with the 
wind. I have done all I could do. I leave 
the rest to God, whom I have ever found pro- 
pitious to my necessities." 



CHAPTER XXVI 

DEATH OF THE EXPLORER 

The embers of the flame of life of Columbus 
had nearly reached extinction, when for a mo- 
ment they blazed up with something like the old 
energy. The arrival of king Philip and Queen 
Juana was the occasion of the revivication. They 
had just come to take possession of the throne 
of Castile. In the daughter of Isabella he was 
certain that he would once more find a friend 
in whose kindness he would secure support. 
Columbus would have gladly gone to meet the 
couple, but a recurrence of his illness prevented 
him from leaving his bed. And so helpless 
was he in his situation that he could not dis- 
pense with the services of his son Diego. He 
therefore delegated his brother, who was his 
main reliance, to represent him and to offer his 
congratulations. 

Columbus sent a letter to the new king and 

173 



1 74 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

queen, in which he expressed his sorrow that 
he was too ill to come in person to present 
his gratification at their accession to the throne, 
and begged them to regard him as one of the 
most loyal of their subjects. He furthermore 
expressed a wish in his letter that they would 
do him the justice to restore him his honors 
and estates, assuring them that though pros- 
trated by a severe illness, he was certain that 
he would yet be able to perform even greater 
labor than any which he had hitherto accom- 
plished. 

This was the last supreme effort of the dying 
explorer; it exhibited a spirit which, without 
regarding age and infirmities, and all humili- 
ation and mortification gave his last utterances 
with all the confidence he had exhibited in his 
best days ; and spoke of still greater explora- 
tions as if he stood at the height of a vigorous 
life. The Adelantedo bade his brother good- 
bye, whom he was never to see again alive, 
and started out on his mission. He met with 
the most cordial reception. The young couple 
gave the closest attention to the reports, and 
every assertion was to the effect that there 
would be a concession to the demands of the 
admiral. 

Columbus' troubles were about at an end. 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 175 

The flash of the expiring flame was smothered 
by increasing illness. Scarcely had his brother 
left when his malady increased in violence. 
His voyages, especially the last one, had ruined 
beyond repair a constitution already impaired 
by arduous labor ;. and incessant anxieties pre- 
vented his enjoyment of that rest so essential 
to recruit the weariness and depression of age. 
The action of Ferdinand, his hypocrisy, his 
evasion broke his heart. The suspension of 
his titles, the enmity and contempt which he 
had experienced, the popular detraction of which 
he was the object, had overshadowed the great 
ambition which had been the purpose of his 
life. It may be that he had a prescience that 
this obscurity would not be permanent; but 
sometime in the distance a glorious light would 
illuminate his career. 

Knowing that he was about to die, he made 
preparations to leave his business in shape for 
the benefit of his successor. Among other be- 
quests on the fourth of May, he wrote a testa- 
mentary codicil on a blank page of a little 
prayer-book given him by Pope Alexander VI. 
He left this book to the public of Genoa, and 
made that province the successor of his privi- 
leges and dignities, incase of the running out of 
his male line. Another provision of this codi- 



176 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

cil was the construction of a hospital in the 
city of Genoa, the funds to be taken from his 
property in Italy. 

Among writers the authenticity of this docu- 
ment is disputed. "It is not, however," says 
a writer, "of much importance. The paper is 
such as might readily have been written by a 
person such as Columbus, in the paroxysm of 
disease, when he imagined his end suddenly 
approaching, and shows the affection with which 
his thoughts were bent on his native city. It 
is termed among commentators a military codi- 
icil, because testamentary dispositions of this 
kind are executed by a soldier at the point of 
death, without the usual formalities required by 
the civil law. About two weeks afterward, on 
the eve of his death, he executed a final and 
regularly authenticated codicil, in which he 
bequeaths his dignities and estates with bet- 
ter judgment. " 

This final codicil of Columbus, made as he 
stood with one foot in the grave, is creditable 
to all the better qualities of the great explorer. 
In case he died without male issue the estate 
was to go to his brother Don Fernando, and 
in case he failed of issue, passing to his uncle, 
Don Bartholomew, and always going to the 
nearest male heir. And were there a lack of 



CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US i ^^ 

male descendents, it was to go to the female of 
the closest kin. All his heirs must be devoted 
at all times to serve the king and promote the 
Christian faith. Liberal allowances were made 
for poor relatives and others in necessity. 

His son was ordered to build a chapel in 
Hispaniola, in the town of Conception, in the 
Vega, where masses should be performed daily 
for the repose of the souls of himself, his mother, 
wife, and others who died in the faith. Among 
the closing items were several small sums to 
be paid to people at different points without 
their being told where they came from. One 
of these was half a mark of silver to a poor 
Jew who lived in Lisbon. 

Having thus attended to the disposition of 
his personal possessions, Columbus received 
the holy sacrament, and performed all the pious 
duties of a devout Christian, and died on the 
2oth of May, 1506, being about seventy years 
of age. His last words were : "Into thy hands, 
O Lord, I commend my spirit." 

His body was deposited in the convent of 
San Francisco, and the funeral services held 
at Valladolid. In 1513 they were removed to 
the Carthusian monastery of Las Cuevas at 
Seville, to the chapel of St. Anne, in which 
was also deposited the body of his son Don 



1 78 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

Diego. In 1536 the bodies of Columbus and 
his son were removed to Hispaniola, and in- 
terred in the principal chapel of the Cathedral 
of San Domingo. But even here they did not 
rest in quiet, having been again disinterred 
and conveyed to Havana on the island of Cuba. 

In 1795 all the Spanish possessions in the 
island of Hispaniola were ceded to France, at 
the termination of the war between France and 
Spain. This same year it is said that the body 
of Columbus "was again moved to Cuba," which 
would permit the inference that since the re 
moval two hundred and fifty years before to 
Cuba, the body had been removed at least once 
to some place not mentioned. 

It may be said at this point that there is 
much uncertainty as to where Columbus really 
is buried. There is no certainty that the re- 
mains exhumed at San Domingo were those of 
the great discoverer. In fact the question is 
an open one. So many years had elapsed, 
nearly three hundred, that the graves in the 
church must have long since become impaired 
and disintegrated, permitting no certainty that 
the ashes taken were those of Columbus. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

SOME ESTIMATES OF THE CHARACTER OF COLUMBUS 

As was said in the opening chapter of this 
biography, Columbus was a man of diverse and 
contradictory qualities. He was great in some 
things, and infinitely little in others. One 
admirable quality that he possessed in great 
and unvarying quantity was humanity and a 
warm, benevolent consideration of the rights 
and customs and feelings of the natives whom 
he discovered. There is not the slightest stain 
of blood on his garments; he was Christ-like 
in his gentleness, his patience, his regard of 
the primitive people whom he brought into 
contact with civilization. 

In this particular he was not representative 
of the large element of Spaniards whom his 
explorations brought into contact with the Indi- 
ans. He stood almost isolated in his attitude; 
the others were characterized by rapacious 
greed, the most intolerable cruelty, the most 
179 



1 So CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

total disregard of the property, the family rights, 
the lives of the native inhabitants. He left 
among the aborigines love, respect, confidence; 
they strewed their progress with the blackened 
ruins of burned huts, with gashed bodies, with 
trails of blood ; where they found peace, they 
distributed desolation. 

Apart from this single quality of a humane re- 
gard for the Indians, Columbus was very uneven 
in his development. He did not hesitate to 
deceive his crew about the distance they had 
reached on their first voyage ; or to force his 
men to sign papers certifying that they had seen 
the mainland of Asia, when each of them well 
knew that he was subscribing to a falsehood. 

That he had no ability to control men is 
shown conclusively by the acts of his subordi- 
nates so soon as his back was turned and they 
were left to themselves. There were mutiny, 
and revolt even under his eyes on his first voy- 
age ; Pinzon ran off with one-third of his fleet; 
La Navidad, drew on itself annihilation by its 
robberies and gross licentiousness ; in fine, in 
a very brief period, the region which he dis- 
covered, and as an Eden when he found it, be- 
came suddenly a hell under his administration. 

In view of this conspicuous lack of admin- 
istrative ability; seeing that the colonies went 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS i8i 

to decays that his men died like rotten sheep; 
that his supplies of food were generally insuf- 
ficient ; and this universal, disastrous failure 
was known to all Spain, as it must, or should 
have been known to Columbus himself, there 
is something mean, grasping, almost swinish 
in the pertinacity with which he hounded the 
Spanish sovereigns to restore his forfeited rank 
and income. 

It cannot but be that he was possessed by a 
self-conceit that refused to see the colossal 
failure of his attempt at the government of his 
colonies. Ferdinand, however great his duplici- 
ty in his final treatment of Columbus, is not 
without his apologists. He was sufficiently 
Jesuitical in his nature to smile, and use flat- 
tering words to a man whom he disliked ; but 
despite these hypocrisies, he knew Columbus 
well enough to comprehend that it was not the 
fair thing to do, to burden all succeeding Span- 
ish generations with wealth, titles, honors for 
the labor, albeit vast, performed in the discov- 
ery of the West Indies. 

It is a fair question as to whether Columbus 
was not well paid for what he had done. He 
exhibited no more than a very high order of 
daring as a navigator. His purpose in the 
enterprise was not one which involved the dis- 



i82 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 

covery of a new continent, but to get a shorter 
route to an old one. His project was not the 
scheme of a great geographer, but that of a 
navigator anxious to increase his wealth by- 
opening up a permanent and lucrative occupa- 
tion. 

He did not have in view a new world. What 
he was allured by were the exaggerations and 
fables of Mandeville, and Marco Polo, the fairy 
city of Cipango, with its marvelous extent of 
opulence and beauty, Prester John, a white 
native of interior India, and the Khan of Tar- 
tary, still another creation of romancers, and 
Munchausens, These impossibilities, these 
absurdities are what he sailed after; he discov- 
ered a few hundred islands, and died believing 
he had reached India, and never dreaming of 
the existence of the great northern continent, 
against which he almost ran the prows of his 
crude vessel. 

It cannot but be conceded that he was intense- 
ly religious, although, there was in his piety 
an element of gross superstition. It is seen 
how in emergencies, during tempestuous weath- 
er, for instance, lots were drawn to see who 
should make a pilgrimage to some remote shrine 
of Virgin or saint, to placate the powers and 
allay the storms. In one instance in 1451, 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 183 

Columbus saw a water-spout approaching which 
could only be averted by reading the gospel of 
St. John. 

His bigotry sometimes displaced his gentle- 
ness and humane regard for the natives ; they 
must be converted at all hazards, death or slav- 
ery included. He sent some large numbers of 
Indians with the recommendation that efforts 
should be made to convert them, failing in 
which they should be sold into slavery. He 
had all the fanatical intolerance in regard to 
the conversion of the irreligious entertained 
by the infamous ministers of the Inquisition. 
Merciful in his ordinary treatment of them, he 
was implacable and merciless in the matter of 
their conversion to Christianity. It is not on 
record that despite all his efforts, and the 
hordes of priests that accompanied him on his 
later expeditions, but one convert was made, 
and who took the first opportunity on his return 
from Spain, to swim ashore in the night and 
disappear in the forests, and was never after 
seen to be recognized by white men. 

There was one convert, who fled ; there were 
hundreds of whites killed by Indians, who were 
driven into hostilities, and thousands of natives 
who were mercilessly massacred during the 
reign of Columbus over the islands. 



i 84 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 

Winsor says in a summary on the multifarious 
qualities of Columbus ; "If his mental and moral 
equipoise had been as true, and his judgment 
as clear as his spirit was lofty and impressive, 
he could have controlled the actions of men as 
readily as he subjected their imagination to his 
v^rill, and more than one brilliant opportunity 
for a record befitting a ruler of men would not 
have been lost. 

"The world always admires constancy and 
zeal : but when it is fed, not by well-rounded 
performance, but by self-satisfaction and self- 
interest, and tarnished by deceit, we lament 
where we would approve. Columbus' imagina- 
tion was eager, and ungovernable. It led him 
to a great discovery, which he was not looking 
for; and he was far enough right to make his 
error more emphatic. He is certainly not alone 
among the great men of the world's regard who 
have some of the attributes of the small and 
mean." 

THE END 



DRIVEN FROM SEA TO SEA. 

By C. C. Post, author of "Congressman Swanson." 

I vol. i2mo, cloth, ' . $1.25 

I vol. i2mo, paper, 50 cents 

FIFTIETH THOUSAND. 
The greatest anti-monopoly book. 



The book will be treasured by the laboring people, and be kept 
alongside of the Bible in many a lowly cabin — People's Advocate. 

One of the most wonderful books of the nineteenth century. — Michi- 
gan Labor Journal. 

If the book should be read by law-makers, it would do more to set 

them to thinking than the most eloquent speeches. * - Since 

the day that Mrs Stowe wrote the doom of the slave driver in "Uncle 

Tom's Cabin," no author has struck a more vigorous blow in favor of the 

ights of the laborer. * * — Chicago Inter Ocean. 

I have given the book a full perusal. It is the most timely book that 
has been published. Its execution is very remarkable as a piece of book- 
making. It is not a work of fiction but exhibits startling truths that are 
stranger than fiction in regard to the horrible defects in our, system of 
land grants and disposal and occupation of public lands, that must arouse 
the people and Congress to the necessary remedies to protect honest and 
industrious settlers and their families from being wronged by land com- 
panies and land grabbers. I wish that a copy could be put in the hands 
of and read by every member of both branches of Congress. — Gen. B. F. 
Butler. 

Somehow the book got hold of me, and I could scarcely lay it down 
until I had finished it. From the very first sentence it held .my close 
attention. It is the portrayal of the hopeless struggle of a working man 
against the might of corporate wealth. Would God it were a fiction, but 
the facts given in the margin prove that the story is true to life. If this 
book could have a million readers it would help to make such crimes 
impossible beneath the Stars and Stripes. — Chaplain C. C. McCahe. 

I have read "Driven from Sea to Sea," with an interest that never 
flagged for a moment. It is a graphic picture of the trials and sufferings 
of a pioneer settler in hi.-? weary conflict with land grabbers and railway 
corporations in California, and will be keenly appreciated by thousands 
who have had a kindred experience. As a contribution to the "simple 
annals of the poor," it deserves a place by the side of "Uncle Tom's 
Cabin," and it cannot fail to bear fruit in the coming struggle between 
the organized rapacity of capital and the rights of humanity. It embod- 
ies suggestions in political economy, and hints at reforms, which will help 
wake up the people while appealing to their sense of justice and their sen- 
sibility to suffering. I have long felt the need of such a story, and am 
glad to find it so true to life, and so well written. — George IV. Julian. 



Charles H. Sergel & Company, Publishers, 

346-348-350 Dearborn Street, Chicago. 



If 



I TRRftRY OF CONGRESS 

Hi 

011 563 773 3 J$_ 



LI 

I 



